Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, has revealed that Nigerians should be made to pay more for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in exchange for financial autonomy for the board.
Oloyede, who spoke before the House Committee on Finance on Wednesday, said the examination body does not have to be catered for in the annual budget if it is allowed to hike up the cost of UTME from N3,500 to N5,000, an increase of about 40 percent.
The registrar said the cost was reduced in 2017 as JAMB is not a revenue-generating entity.
He, however, noted that with the current inflation rate and other economic realities, the matter needs to be reviewed.
“I believe we should revert to the N5000 we were charging. Given the inflation, if we charge N10,000– I am just giving it as an example, nobody will ask the federal government for one kobo. I am not aware of anywhere in the world, except maybe Finland— that charges as low as JAMB is charging. In Finland, we know that everything is free,” he said.
The examination body has remitted N27.2 billion to the Nigerian government’s coffers from 2017 to date.