JAMB remitted N7.8bn to government in 2017 – Registrar

The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede, says about N7.8 billion was remitted to the Federal Government as revenue by the board in 2017.
Speaking at the JAMB office in Bwari, FCT, Oloyede said government never expected such huge remittance because the revenue target of the board for 2017 was N500 million.
Rasheedat Okoduwa, spokesperson of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), made this known in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to her, Oloyede spoke at the inauguration of the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) of JAMB by the ICPC.
“A top government official had emphasised that JAMB must remit nothing less than N500 million to the government.
“The JAMB officer with me in that meeting advised that I should say the agency would be able to return about N600 million.
“But at the end of the day, we returned N7.8 billion,” Okoduwa quoted him as saying.
The registrar noted that his actions were not meant to expose his predecessors, but rather driven by his anti-corruption reforms in the agency anchored on accountability and transparency in the management of public finances.
He urged the ACTU members to use the platform enabled by the ICPC to tackle corruption in JAMB.
The JAMB boss stated that the many corruption matters he had been handling were beginning to have adverse effects on his other responsibilities.
However, he assured the ACTU members of the strong support of the management, promising that he would not hesitate to spend his personal money to facilitate their work if the need arose.
“I can assure you of our total support, just as it will not be good for you if corruption is traced to any of you.
“Funding will not be a problem because you will have more than what government is giving you, since you will be relieving me of the burden of pursuing criminals,” Oloyede reportedly said.
Earlier, acting Chairman of ICPC, Abdullahi Bako, lauded the ongoing anti-corruption reforms of JAMB, which recently uncovered massive fraud in some of its state offices.
Bako, who was represented by Justin Kuatsea of the Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Department (CMED) of the commission, noted that the achievements of JAMB in the anti-corruption fight were worthy of emulation by other government agencies.
Chairman of ACTU in JAMB, Munirat Lawal, assured that the unit would deliver on its mandate by helping to reduce the incidence of corruption in the agency.
Lawal added that the unit had already begun work by sensitising staff against corruption and helping to close down some illegal centres for conduct of the Computer-Based Test.