JAMB disputes allegations of “huge expenditures” on meals, fumigation, and other expenses in 2024.

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, has raised concerns over the misrepresentation of figures in the 2025 budget proposal presented to the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Finance on Monday.

Oloyede refuted claims that the Board spent excessive amounts on fumigation, meals, and other items in 2024, calling them misrepresentations.

He clarified that the Board’s total expenditure for fumigation across all states in 2024 was less than N1 million.

Addressing reporters in Abuja on Tuesday, Oloyede said: “I want to say emphatically, without any iota of doubt, that I never presented any budget performance of 2024 before the National Assembly yesterday. I think it’s a lot of misunderstanding.

“I did not talk about the 2024 budget performance. And we did not spend any money—any humongous money in 2024. Indeed, what we spent on fumigation in the whole state of the Federation, all offices in 2024, was not up to one million naira. And what we budgeted for 2025 for fumigation is less than two million.”

He explained that a misunderstanding arose because the detailed breakdown of the budget proposal was not fully reviewed during the presentation.

“On the succeeding page, we provided the breakdown with asterisks to call attention to it, but we did not go and read the other pages where we analyzed what we were doing,” he noted.

On the N6.5 billion allegedly spent on training in 2024, Oloyede said the money is just a proposal for 2025 that cuts across various budget lines, including monitoring of examinations, admission expenses, e-facilities payment, and awards for the best higher education institutions, among others.

“We have 10,500 examiners and invigilators going to conduct both the mock and the UTME. Some of them stay for 10 days. I do not determine their DTA. It’s the government that determines the DTA to be paid to them. So what offence have I committed to putting their claims together?” he asked.