The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it has made an interim remittance of N3.5 billion to the federal government’s purse after the conduct of its 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This was disclosed in a statement on Sunday night signed by JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin.
The board said it had earlier paid N3.5 billion to candidates by reducing N1,500 from the cost of ePINs sold to each candidate as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari. It said this brings its total remittances this year to over N7 billion.
The board also said it will remit more as soon as its operations are concluded and proper audit of its books is completed.
He said it had been the intention of the present leadership of the examination body to return to federal coffers, whatever is left unutilised from its operational funds.
“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,” he said.
According to Mr Benjamin, before the reduction in the cost of application ePINs, the agency had remitted billions of naira in 2017 and replicated same in subsequent years until President Buhari’s directive to give back to candidates a percentage of the cost of registration.