The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it has remitted N3.5bn generated from the conduct of the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s head of media and information, in a statement issued on Sunday, said this is an addition to an earlier N3.5bn remitted to government from the sales of ePINs to UTME candidates.
According to the statement, this brings the total amount of money remitted to the federal government this year to N7bn.
“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made an interim remittance of N3.5b to the Federal Government consolidated account for the 2020 expected remittance in line with Is-haq Oloyede’s avowed commitment to remit wholly, excess funds generated from its operations to the federal government,” the statement read.
“It had earlier made the payment of over N3.5b to candidates by way of reduction of N1,500 from the cost of each ePIN sold to each candidates as graciously directed by Mr President totaling over N3.5b bringing the total remittances this year to over N7b with the assurance to remit more as soon as its operations are concluded and proper audit of its books done.”
It added that the move was in line with the board’s commitment to ensure prompt remittance of untilised funds generated during the course of its operations to the coffers of federal government.
“From the outset, it had been the intention of the present leadership of the board to return to federal coffers, whatever is left unutilised from its operational imperatives,” the statement added.
“The immediate benefit of the move manifested in the reduction by President Muhammadu Buhari of the UTME Registration fee payable by candidates from N5000 to N3500 which entails the transfer of over N3b to candidates and guardians annually via the reduction in the cost of application documents.
“Before the reduction in the cost of application ePINs, the board had remitted over N7b in 2017 and replicated same in subsequent years until the gracious action by the Buhari administration’s unprecedented decision to give back to candidates a percentage of the cost of registration.
“To sustain the gesture, the board will continue to come up with innovations on ways to ensure that candidates are provided with world-class services at modest cost as obtained anywhere in the world.”
This year’s remittance by JAMB was an increase from that of 2019 when the board returned N5 billion to the federal government.
The federal government had then returned N2bn to the board to further enhance its operations.
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