Remits N8bn in two years
Is revenue generation part of Board’s functions?
No law mandates us to generate revenue — JAMB

By Dayo Adesulu

MANY nations world over that perceive the education of its citizenry as part of capital and national development, have continuously ensured that its people have access to qualitative education by either offering them free education to certain level or making it affordable.

In Nigeria, it’s not clear if government is in that narrative, as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has become a source of revenue generation for the Federal Government.

JAMB logo

Speaking exclusively with Vanguard, yesterday, JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin said, “There is no section in the Act that established the Board that mandated it to generate revenue for the Federal Government. We are not generating revenue for the Federal Government. What we collect from candidates are liabilities for the service we have not rendered. But in the event whereby we have excess, it is only natural to know that it’s not ours, therefore, we return it to the government.
“It is not revenue we generate but excess of what we spent. It’s like giving a child N2,000 to do a job, and the child discovered he has executed the job with N1,000. A good child will say, ‘Daddy, this is what remains.’ What we have done is to demonstrate that we are transparent and return the left -over.

Core functions

“That is why some people are arguing that if in five years we discovered we had that much, the best thing to do would have been to reduce the cost of the form. But before we can reduce the cost of a form, we have to ensure it is consistent for some years to avoid running into trouble in the future.”

The core functions of the Board as entrenched in its enabling Act are: “The general control of the conduct of matriculation examinations for admissions into all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria. And the placement of suitably qualified candidates in the tertiary institutions having taken into account the vacancies available in each tertiary institution.”

However, the recent remittance of N8 billion by JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, to the national treasury and government’s intended probe into the previous registrars’ financial records, leaves one to wonder if the Board was created to generate revenue for the government. At the same time, it became obvious that the present registration fees of N5,500 for each candidate could be reduced to alleviate the suffering of the less privileged.

While the Federal Government, makes provisions for the Board, through the Ministry of Education’s yearly budgets, the board, however, generates funds through sales of registration forms. How the Board arrives at the cost of each form every year is still unclear.

Available records show that in 2011/2012, a JAMB form was sold at the rate of N4,600 to 1, 503,931 candidates which amounted to N6,918, 082, 600.

In 2013, the forms were sold to 1,735,892 at the rate of N4,600, amounting to N7,985,103,200. For 2014, 1,606,753 candidates purchased the form at the rate of N4,600, giving JAMB a whopping sum of N7, 391, 063,800.

Moreover, in 2015, 1,475,477 bought the forms at the rate of N4,500, bringing the amount sold to N6,558, 646, 500 , the least sales in five years. In 2016, the number of candidates rose to 1,589,175, just as a form was sold at the rate of N5,500, bringing the total amount to N8,740,462,500.

Last year, the number of candidates rose to 1,736,571, as an entry form was sold at 5,000, which amounted to N8,682, 855,000. Thus, in the past six years, JAMB had raked in N46, 276,213,600 from the sales of forms to prospective candidates.

The question begging for answer is whether fund generation for the Federal Government is part of JAMB’s mandate or not. Many believe that rather than maintaining the present cost of a JAMB form, the price for each form can be reduced to give the less privileged access to tertiary education.

Cost of administration

Meanwhile, Chapter 193 of the JAMB’s Act states: “The Board shall establish and maintain a fund which shall consist of such sums as may be provided by the Federal Government for the running expenses of the Board; and such other sums as may be collected or received by the Board from other sources either in the execution of its functions or in respect of any property vested in the Board or otherwise howsoever.

To many stakeholders, that section of the Act stipulates that the primary source of funding for the running of the Board shall be the Federal Government. The sale of form should be a secondary or additional source, and this is explicated in the fact that every year, the Ministry of Education from its budget disburses money to the Board.

The Act continues: “The Board may, from time to time, apply the proceeds of the fund established in pursuance of section 10 of this Act to the cost of administration of the Board; for reimbursing members of the Board or of any committee set up by the Board for such expenses as may be expressly authorised by the Board in accordance with such rates as may be approved, from time to time, by the National Council of Ministers; to the payment of salaries, fees or other remuneration or allowances, pensions, superannuation allowances and gratuities payable to employees of the Board and of fees to agents.

So that no payment of any kind under this paragraph (except such as may be expressly authorised) shall be made to any person who is in receipt of emoluments from the Government of the Federation or of a State; for the maintenance of any property acquired or vested in the Board; and for and in connection with all or any of the functions of the Board under or pursuant to this Act

“The Board shall submit to the Minister, not later than September 30, in each year an estimate of its expenditure and income during the next succeeding year. The Board shall keep proper accounts and proper records in relation thereto and shall prepare in respect of each year a statement of accounts in such form as it may think appropriate.

The accounts of the Board shall be audited, not later than six months after the end of the year to which such accounts relate, by auditors appointed by the Board from the list and in accordance with the guidelines supplied by the Auditor-General of the Federation.”

Statementof accounts

From the above data, Professor Dibu Ojerinde who served as the Board’s registrar from April 10, 2012 to August 1, 2016 made sales of N28,852,896,100 from 6,322,053 candidates, while the present registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, between 2016 and 2017 also made N17,423,317,500 from the sales of forms to 3,325,746 candidates.
While the former registrar, Prof. Ojerinde, remitted N50,752,544 to  the Federal Government coffers between 2011 and 2016, Prof Isaq Oloyede had within two years, remitted N8,000,000,000 to Federal Government’s purse.

In 2011, out of the N6,918, 082, 600 forms sold, it was gathered from the Accountant-General’s office that only N11,522,808 was remitted, while N25, 303,274 was remitted out of the N7,985,103,200 in 2013 and N13,926,462 was remitted in 2014 from sales of forms worth N7, 391, 063,800. The reports indicate that there were no remittances in 2010, 2012 and 2015.

How the generated funds through the sales of forms were managed over the years have been of great concern for many stakeholders. You will recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, had ordered the probe of Professor Ojerinde over poor remittances to the Federal Government’s accounts in the past.
The Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, recently revealed that the Federal Executive Council specifically directed the Ministry of Finance to look into the past revenue remittances of JAMB and some other agencies.

The Education Minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu on his part said, “The question the Council members were asking was, where was all this money before?
The directive was given that we must call the former heads of all these agencies and similar ones to account (for their financial dealings), and that is the directive we have been given and that is what we intend to do.”

Until now, the stakeholders in the Education sector are still waiting for the action of the Minister.
However, the argument in some quarters is that the claim that Prof. Ojerinde remitted only N50,752,544 in five years should be looked into in the light of his income and expenditures for those years before anyone condemns him.

They reiterated that before condemning the past administration, we should take pains to get the total revenue and expenditure for the periods under consideration before arriving at a conclusion.

For the purpose of credibility, the total candidates that sat the exams, total revenue and expenditure for the periods for all to see.