Fixing the Future: Why JAMB’s Transparency Must Now Meet Infrastructure Needs
Jerry Adesewo
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), under the leadership of Professor Is-haq Oloyede, has earned a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most transparent and financially disciplined agencies. In 2024, JAMB recorded over ₦22.9 billion in income and remitted a whopping ₦6 billion surplus to the federal government. Add to this the ₦1,500 reduction in UTME form fees, and the board’s effective economic contribution to the government exceeds ₦9 billion—a remarkable feat by any standard.
However, the 2025 UTME cycle has shown us that transparency alone is no longer enough. The glitches experienced this year—ranging from incomplete result uploads to reports of technical failures at some Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres—have rekindled an urgent national conversation: why are we still struggling with adequate infrastructure when JAMB is clearly making surplus?
The answer may lie in a misalignment of priorities. While JAMB has proven capable of financial prudence, the reality on the ground suggests that critical investment in digital infrastructure has lagged behind. Thousands of students, especially from underserved regions, faced technical setbacks during their exams, through no fault of theirs. In some cases, entire centres were decommissioned mid-exam due to system failures. For a generation that sees education as the ladder out of poverty, such setbacks are more than frustrating—they’re destabilising.
Imagine if a fraction of the ₦6 billion surplus had been earmarked to establish or upgrade CBT centres in rural and underserved communities. The impact would have been enormous. Not only would it reduce the pressure on overstretched urban centres, but it would also ensure more equitable access to quality assessment platforms across the country.
Professor Oloyede’s legacy remains commendable. At least, his sojourn as Vice Chancellor of the prestigious University of Ilorin, still speaks for him. And at JAMB, his reforms brought digital sanity, curbed exam malpractice, and restored public trust in an agency once riddled with corruption, with takes of snake swallong money.
Yet, as we move forward, JAMB must pivot from simply remitting surpluses to reinvesting in the ecosystem that supports its core mandate: fair and efficient testing for Nigeria’s future leaders.
If this year’s glitches taught us anything, it is that the time has come to spend more of the surplus not just wisely—but intentionally.
For the sake of the millions of students relying on JAMB as a gateway to opportunity, we must ensure that transparency walks hand-in-hand with impact. And impact in my opinion will de defined as establishing cottage CBT centres a Ross the nation rather than lining the pockets of politicians and civil servant with the remitted surplus fund that no one would account for.
Judging by the increasing demand for higher institution, and rising enrolment for JAMB, the agency should have more to declare to government this year. I believe it would be wiser, if Prof. Oloyede and JAMB commence the process of seeking approval from the Ministry of Education and the Presidency, to allow the agency plunge it’s 2025 surplus into establishing more CBT centres.
Fixing the Future: Why JAMB’s Transparency Must Now Meet Infrastructure Needs