The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board generated a princely N8.453billion from the sales of forms to applicants seeking admission into tertiary institutions in Nigeria in 2018.
A top official of the Board disclosed that the revenue came from payments made by 1,602,762 candidates who registered for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held across the country in March.
Part of the revenue also came from registration fees paid by 135, 670.00 Direct Entry (DE) candidates.
Each of the total 1,798,438 UTME and direct entry candidates paid N5,500 for the forms out of which N4,700 goes to JAMB’s coffers while N800 is remitted to banks and suppliers of reading texts to applicants, the official further explained.
The number of applicants was lower this year following reforms in the application process which effectively blocked multiple registration by candidates. About N1.8million UTME and DE candidates sought tertiary admissions in 2017.
It is not exactly clear how much the Board will remit to the Federal Government this year after settling computer-based test centres, and paying other service providers and exam officials.
In 2017, the examination body paid in N7.8 billion to the government. Our source said the remittance for 2018 will be close to that amount.
