Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has confirmed that it realized N8.4 billion from the sale of 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) applications, a figure running short of revenue realized last year from UTME sales.
There are, however, several other revenue sources through which the Board could later boost its income.
JAMB records indicate that at the end of the two-month application window, it registered 1,662,763 candidates for the 2018 exam, less than the 1,718,425 candidates who registered for the exam within a month and two week period in 2017, indicating a 3.2 percent decrease.
The Board had remitted N7.8 billion into the Federation Account.
Meanwhile, JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who confirmed the figure to Daily Sun in Abuja Friday, said that it made other payments to pin vendors and Computer Base Test (CBT) centres for mock exams and other services.
“People actually thought that N5,500 that we collect for UTME application goes straight to JAMB purse,” the registrar said.
“They calculate that by the number of candidates that registered for the exam and arrive at a figure. But, in actual sense, less than that enters the purse of JAMB. Others are for expenditures that are needed for the success of the exam.”
Oloyede, however, declined comment on the amount that would be remitted into the Federation Account, even though he had earlier hinted that remittance into the account would be as it was last year.
