The total amount the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board, JAMB, remitted to the federal government coffers between 2010 and 2016 is N 50,752,544, PREMIUM TIMES can reveal.This is about one per cent of the N5 billion the agency remitted to the federal government in 2017 alone.
The seemingly ridiculous nature of the remittances before the appointment of Ishaq Oloyede as Registrar of the examination body in August last year led to the federal government mandating the investigation of previous heads of JAMB.
The Federal Executive Council, FEC, in September ordered a probe into the administration of the past heads of JAMB and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, over what it called poor revenue remittance in the past.
“Now they (JAMB) have not increased their charges, they have not increased their fees. The question that FEC and council members were asking was ‘where was this money before?’” Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said after the September 13 FEC meeting.
Dibu Ojerinde, who headed JAMB between 2007 and 2016 is believed to be at the centre of the investigation to be conducted.
The remittances between 2010 and 2017 were contained in a document by the office of the Accountant General in response to a Freedom Of Information, FOI, request by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism.
The accountant general’s office stated that N11,522,808 was remitted in 2011; N25, 303,274 was remitted in 2013 and N13,926,462 was remitted in 2014.
There was no remittance in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2016, Bakari Wadinga of the accountant general’s office said in response to the FOI request.
When contacted on the poor remittances by the agency prior to Mr. Oloyede’s assumption of office, the JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said ”the issue has gotten to the Federal Executive Council and until the investigation ordered by the federal government revealed anything, I cannot talk on the issue.”