From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
A House of Representatives ad hoc committee has commended the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for fortifying its operations against criminal infiltrations.
The commendation was in response to the outcome of the saga involving JAMB and Miss Mmesomma Ejikeme who claimed to have scored the highest in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) as against the pronouncement from JAMB.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Soli Sada, gave commendation when the ad-hoc committee visited JAMB headquarters in Abuja.
The lawmaker observed that the technological innovations deployed by JAMB have helped to strengthen the credibility of the UTME and other activities of JAMB.
He congratulated the Board for generating enough revenue for the federation account, stating that JAMB was one of the public institutions with quality governance.
“This is one of the institutions that demonstrated the quality of Nigerians that we have in public sector governance of this country.
“What we have seen today in JAMB is a testimony of the quality of public officers that are there, and how they are disciplined. No wonder JAMB is generating good revenue for the federation account.
“We, as an institution of the parliament, have come and we have seen and will definitely go back with a report to the parliament and see how we can strengthen the capacity of JAMB staff so they will continue to provide quality services to the country,” Sada said.
JAMB Registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede, in his remarks, informed the lawmakers that from the situation room, the Board can monitor and communicate with all the states and also relate with the candidates during the examinations.
“From my office, I can monitor all the CBT centres and accreditation of CBT centres. I pay attention during registration, monitoring of admissions to over 1000 higher institutions,” he said.
Recall that JAMB had remitted N2 billion as its interim surplus for the 2023 operating year to the federation account, saying more would be remitted as its operations for the year are completed.
Since assuming office, the Oloyede-led management had remitted over N55bn to the federation account.
JAMB spokesman Dr Fabian Benjamin had in a statement, said that the remittance was in furtherance of the pledge by the Oloyede-led management, on the assumption of duty, that it would leverage technology and discipline to manage the affairs of the board.