2025 budget: NASS To Remove JAMB From FG Grant
THE National Assembly, comprising the Senate and House of Representatives, has threatened to remove the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB in the 2025 budget proposal, saying it was unjustifiable for the board not to remit N4billion to the federation account, despite getting N6bn from the Federal Government in 2024.
According to NASS, the federal government should stop giving JAMB grant and allow it spend what it generates.
The position of the joint committee of NASS was sequel to the presentation by JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, who appeared before the committee, led by Senator Sani Musa, APC, Niger East, to defend the agency’s 2025 budget proposai at an interactive session on ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs’ revenue projections for 2025.
Giving a breakdown of the performance of JAMB’s 2024 budget, Oloyede told the lawmakers that the board remitted N4billion to the consolidated revenue fund, while it got a grant of N6billion from the federal government.
This did not go down well with the committee as some members, including Abiodun Faleke and Senator Adams Oshiomhole, APC, Edo, questioned why a self-funding agency should be getting allocations from the federal government.
“You remitted N4billion and got N6billion from the federal government. Why not keep the N4billion and we stop the government from funding JAMB,” the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Faleke queried.
On his part, Oshiomhole queried: “You spent N1.1billion on meals and refreshment. 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 N850million on security, cleaning and fumigation in 2024.What did you fumigate? Is it mosquitoes that took all this money?
Justify spending N850m to kill mosquitoes, cleaning, Oshiomhole tells JAMB
NASS threatens to cut JAMB funding over N1billion spent on meals, refreshments
The former Edo State governor also slammed JAMB for spending N600million on local travels, even as he called on Oloyede to justify the N6.5billion on local trainings;
N1billion on staff housing scheme, maintenance of vehicle and refurbishment, N75m, among others.
Earlier, chairman of the committee, Senator Musa expressed concerns over low remittances of revenues generated in 2024 by ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, and some government-owned enterprises, GOEs, to the federation account.
The MDAs at the meeting included Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, and Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.
Senator Musa noted that the Senate was deeply worried about the widening disparity between the substantial revenues accruable to the MDAs and their consistently low remittances to the federation account.
He said: “This trend undermines the government’s capacity to fund critical infrastructure and social services, calling to question issues of inefficiency, mismanagement and possible revenue leakages.”
According to him, the committee’s mandate is to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency in the financial operations of the agencies.
He also said the committee would continue to scrutinise MDAs’ revenue projections, performance and adherence to statutory remittance obligations.
Musa, who explained that the session was to identify systematic doubts and recommend actionable results to reverse the troubling patterns, however, sought the cooperation and understanding of all stakeholders at the interactive session.
He said it was imperative that accurate data, comprehensive records and open data were presented for the benefit of Nigerians.
“Let us approach these tasks with a shared commitment to building a stronger, more accountable fiscal framework for Nigeria.
“I call on all of us to please be very open on all those areas that we know, even if they are not presented to us,” the lawmaker said.
