Revealed: JAMB now revenue generating agency – Registrar
Explains reason behind remittance of N8bn to FG
Says JAMB ready to partner govt over anti-corruption war
The Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede, has disclosed that the board’s recent decision to remit N8billion into the coffers of the Federal Government is part of the sustainable effort to key into government’s policy of zero tolerance for corruption and diversifying the nation’s economy.
Oloyede further revealed that JAMB under his watch has changed the narrative of being non- generating agency, as he declared that JAMB is now being operated as revenue generating agency for the Federal Government.
The JAMB boss spoke during an exclusive interview with The Daily Times in Abuja on Tuesday. Oloyede, who took over the mantle of JAMB leadership in August 2016, further maintained that the Board has always been in the media for the right reasons and with several achievements ranging from one success story to the other, and that it had sustained its widely acclaimed efficiency and service delivery, which has earned it the most efficient Public organisation in Nigeria.
He said: “The Board under my leadership, has blazed several trails, which has transformed it from a non-revenue generating agency that depends on Federal Government subvention for its sustenance, to a body that remitted a whopping N5.2 billion to the coffers of the federation, with a promise that another N3billion will follow before the end of the year, bringing the total to N8billion’’.
Another contributory factor considered by the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, is the trail blazing desire to maintain individual and corporate integrity, credibility, accountability and transparency and the determination to make a difference and produce results in governance worthy of emulation.
Also speaking on the reason for the remittance by JAMB, the agency’s Head of Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said it was to demonstrate to the whole world that men of integrity and unalloyed patriotism still abound in Nigeria.
He said: ’’Prof Oloyede has demonstrated that one could serve in the public service with the sole aim of service and taking his organisation to the next pedestal. In the recent times, the Nigerian youth has been in quandary as to who to follow as a shining example and role model, in words and deed.
Prof. Oloyede has silently, without being garrulous, stepped into this role for the Nigerian youth of today to emulate’’.
The Daily Times recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier this year ordered an investigation of revenue diversion in revenue generating agencies including JAMB, having discovered a massive disparity in the remittance of internally generated revenue.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had told State House correspondents on the outcome of the council’s meeting, that the ministry had been specifically directed to look into the past revenue remittances of JAMB.
According to her, the disparity in the remittances of the two agencies in the past and now necessitated the decision to probe all previous heads of the agency, saying other agencies with similar discrepancies in their revenue remittances will be probed.
She said: “The highest amount that JAMB had ever remitted into the consolidated revenue fund before this management was N3million. This year so far they have done N5billion and the Minister of Education reported that they have an additional N3 billion that they are ready to remit which will take this year’s figure alone to N8billion and they have not increased their charges, they have not increased their fees. So, the question the council members were asking is where all this money before was? “These are the leakages which we have now come in and we are blocking,’’ she said.
Augustine Okezie, Abuja
