JAMB Registrar to Reps: We’re not comfortable as a revenue agency.

Jonas Ezieke, Abuja

Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board JAMB Prof. Ishaq Oloyede on Wednesday asked that the National Assembly take measures to extricate the agency from the revenue targets set for all government agencies as it is not comfortable with the tag as a revenue generating agency or entity.

He further said that categorising the examination body as a revenue generating agency is putting a lot of pressure on the staff of the agency to perform their duties diligently.

The JAMB boss had told the House of Representatives Committee on Finance that the conduct of examinations is a social service that is not expected to generate revenue to the coffers of government.

According to him, all over the entire world, the government does fund this type of institution or expect revenue but it supports them to take their functions.

He informed the panel that the Nigerian examination body had cancelled some of its candidates results in the last examination because they got information that some parents paid huge money to enable their children and wards pass the assessment based examination.

He told the Committee that almost all the Colleges of Education in Nigeria are not admitting up to 20% of their carrying capacity adding that there are 300,000 candidates seeking admission to study Medicine in Nigerian universities.

On revenue remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation, he said that the agency had paid in N3.120 billion as Internally Generated Revenue IGR in the year 2021

Also speaking on revenue projections, he said that the agency is setting a target of N4 billion  this time adding that there is now consistency in the payment of it by the body.

But the Committee Deputy Chairman Hon.Abdullahi Seidu said that the examination body should rather exploit its huge revenue generation potentials and pay more earnings into the federal government coffers.

He however commended the Chief Executive Officer CEO and other officials of the foremost examination body for maintaining an enviable records in terms of revenue generation and remittances in comparison to other examination bodies and agencies.