2025 Budget: NASS Cuts JAMB From FG Grant, Criticises Spending
The Senate and House of Representatives have agreed to remove the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) from the Federal Government’s 2025 budget, citing concerns over the board’s financial management.
On Monday, lawmakers claimed that it is illogical for JAMB to remit N4 billion to the federation account while collecting N6 billion from the government in 2024.
JAMB Registrar Ishaq Oloyede delivered the presentation before a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, chaired by Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), during an interactive session on income predictions for 2025. This led to the decision.
Oloyede claimed that JAMB paid N4 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund but received N6 billion from the Federal Government in 2024.
This caused committee members, including Abiodun Faleke and Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo), to challenge the logic of subsidising a self-sustaining body with government grants.
“You transferred N4 billion and received N6 billion from the federal government. “Why not keep the N4 billion and prevent the government from funding JAMB?” said Faleke, Chairman of the House Committee on Finance.
Senator Oshiomhole has criticised JAMB for spending N1.1 billion on meals and refreshments in 2024.
Are you getting free food from the government? “This money comes from poor students, many of whom are orphans,” he explained.
He also questioned the spending of N850 million on security, cleaning, and fumigation, as well as N600 million on local travel, questioning the justification for these costs.
The allotment of N6.5 billion for local training and N1 billion for a staff housing project sparked further concern. Oshiomhole requested a breakdown of these expenses.
Meanwhile, the Senate voiced concern about low remittances by MDAs in 2024, citing a wide discrepancy between revenue produced and amounts paid to the federation account.
Senator Sani Musa, Chairman of the Joint Finance Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives, made the announcement during an interactive session on MDA income forecasts for 2025.
Musa expressed the Senate’s great concern over the enormous disparity between the substantial earnings generated by these entities and their regularly modest payments to the federation account.
He emphasised that this disparity limits the government’s ability to pay important infrastructure projects and social services, raising concerns about inefficiency, mismanagement, and potential revenue leakages.