Inadequate funding hindering conduct of UTME – JAMB Registrar

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said that inadequate funding posed a challenge to the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Oloyede said this when he received a delegation of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institution and Tertiary Education Trust Fund in his office in Bwari, Abuja on Wednesday.
Oloyede said: “The major challenge facing the board has to do with funding.
“We take N5,000 from each candidate.
“We do not even have the money to conduct the examination.
“Rather, we call on third party to do some of the things and they only give some commission to JAMB because we do not have enough money to invest.
“Conduct of examination across the country requires intensive human participation; you will recruit invigilators and monitors and then it costs so much money to set exam questions.
“The capital allocation is N1 billion; the release so far is N45.57million; the overhead cost is N50 million allocated, but N24.9 million is what we have received so far.
“The N24.9 million given is not sufficient to pay electricity bills because all the 36 states and zonal offices depend on what comes from headquarters for their funding.”
Oloyede reiterated the call on the National Assembly to review its decision on the bill seeking to validate the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for three years to avoid harm.
He said that extending the validity of JAMB result would do more harm than good and there is therefore the need to reconsider many things before arriving at a decision.
Responding, the leader of the visiting delegation, Senator Jibrin Barau, said they were at the JAMB office on oversight duty.
He expressed satisfaction with the registrar’s performance so far since his assumption of office.
Barau, representing Kano North Senatorial District, said the bill on the validity of JAMB result had been sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence, urging the registrar to key into it.
According to him, the legislation has been concluded on the part of the Senate.
Barau said: “Anything you want to say is out of the process; I do not have power to say anything on that because the Senate has taken its decision.
“It is a bit of legislation, which has been done on the part of Senate; now it is in the House of Representatives for concurrence.
“You cannot do anything about it.”
The Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Tijjani Kaura, and Senator Sam Egwu were part of the delegation.