NASS QUERIES JAMB FOR SPENDING N1.85BN ON MEALS, INSECTICIDE, OTHERS

NASS QUERIES JAMB FOR SPENDING N1.85BN ON MEALS, INSECTICIDE, OTHERS

The National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance on Monday queried the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over “excessive spendings” on meals, refreshments, mosquito killings and others in 2024.

The committee also threatened to cut off the federal government’s allocation to the board in the 2025 budget.

This was after JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, presented the board’s 2025 budget proposal to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Oloyede said JAMB had remitted N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 2024 but received a grant of N6 billion from the federal government.

But Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) queried JAMB over its spendings and asked the registrar to justify N850 million spent on security, cleaning and fumigation last year.

He said, “You spent N1.1billion 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.

“You also spent N850 million on security, cleaning and fumigation in 2024. What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?”

Oshiomhole further criticised JAMB for spending N600 million on local travels.

Similarly, Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Abiodun Faleke, wondered why JAMB, a revenue-generating and self-sustaining agency, should rely on federal allocations.

The lawmaker said, “You remitted N4bn and got N6 billion from the federal government. Why not keep the N4 billion and we stop the government from funding JAMB?”