The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board -JAMB, has requested complete financial autonomy and removal from the yearly national budgetary allocation.
Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the board’s registrar made the call while meeting the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework -MTEF, on Wednesday, September 14.
Oloyede who disclosed that one of the set conditions for the body was to review the examination fees upward, had informed the lawmakers that its registration fee was reviewed downward from N5,000 to N3,500 in 2017 after the remittance of 7.5 billion naira.
The JAMB registrar had then asked the federal government to enable it to revert to N5,000 and be autonomous. Also, he further revealed that the only other country with decreased exam fees like Nigeria’s was Finland while stressing that no country funds such entry examinations body fully.
“I believe we should revert to the N5000 sum that we were charging. Given the inflation, if we charge N10,000– I am just giving it as an example, nobody will ask the FG for one kobo. I am not aware of anywhere in the world, except maybe Finland that charges as low as JAMB is charging. Whereas, In Finland, we know that everything is free.” Oloyede had opined in a statement.
