Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole has raised concerns over the financial practices of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), particularly its expenditure on security, cleaning, and fumigation, amounting to N850 million in 2024.
During the agency’s 2025 budget defence session before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance, Oshiomhole criticized the spending patterns of JAMB, describing them as excessive and unnecessary.
He queried the Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, on the specific purposes of such significant expenditures.
“You spent N1.1 billion on meals and refreshments. Are you being freely fed by the government? What this means is that you are spending the money you generate from poor students, many of them orphans,” Oshiomhole remarked.
He also questioned the necessity of the N850 million spent on fumigation, rhetorically asking, “What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?”
Adding to his critique, Oshiomhole pointed out that JAMB spent another N600 million on local travel, prompting further calls for accountability.
In defence of the agency’s financial decisions, Prof. Oloyede disclosed that JAMB remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2024, while receiving a grant of N6 billion from the Federal Government.
However, this explanation sparked further scrutiny from Abiodun Faleke, Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, who questioned the rationale behind federal allocations to a revenue-generating agency.
“You remitted N4bn and got N6bn from the Federal Government. Why not keep the N4bn, and we stop the government from funding JAMB?” Faleke queried.
Lawmakers suggested the possibility of eliminating JAMB’s federal allocation in subsequent budgets unless the agency provides convincing justifications for its financial reliance on government funding.
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