Fed Govt okays reduction in cost of JAMB, NECO forms

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting yesterday reduced the examination registration fees for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Senior Secondary and Basic Education Certificate.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu stated this at the end of the FEC meeting.

He said the JAMB fee for the UTME will reduce from N5,000 to N3,500, the Senior Secondary School fee charge by NECO will be reduced from N11,350 to N9,850 and the Basic Education certificate by NECO will reduce from N5,500 to N4,000.

According to him, the new charges would become effective from January, 2019.

Noting that most of the past high examination fees were unnecessary, he said they were siphoned into private pockets.

He noted that the agency is not a revenue generating agency and its focus should not be to generate money.

“In response to the yearnings by parents, the President (Muhammadu Buhari) directed the ministry to look into it,” the minister said.

Adamu added that the reduced fees have nothing to do with the forthcoming general elections.

But, JAMB said it reduced its UTME registration fees because it wanted to alleviate the burden of the cost of the examination on parents.

JAMB’s Head of Media, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said the reduction has been approved by Buhari.

The statement said Buhari was concerned about the burden of the registration fees on the plight of ordinary Nigerians.

The statement reads: “In Mr. President’s determination to alleviate poverty and ensure that every Nigerian desirous of tertiary education is not deprived, government had introduced policies and incentive to boost the economy of ordinary Nigerians and has seen this reduction as a platform to bring more Nigerians on the tertiary education template.

“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board had in less than two years shown commitment to the avowed direction of the President Buhari-led administration by returning over 15 billion.

“Government had deliberated extensively on how to ensure that every Nigerian benefitted from the prudent management of resources in JAMB and came up with the fee reduction.”