The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says the registration fee for the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) was increased due to the hike in the price of diesel.
The Registrar of JAMB, Ishaq Oloyede, stated this while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education Examination Boards on Wednesday.
He said the fee was increased because operators of CBT centres complained about the hike in the cost of operations.
A-MEDIA UPDATE reported that the board increased the fees from N5,700 to N7,700. The breakdown of the fees is as follows: N7,700 (with Mock) and N6,200 (without Mock).
Speaking on the increment, Mr Oloyede, a professor, said some of the operators of CBT are complaining of increment in their operating costs following the high cost of diesel.
He said the examination body did not increase the cost of the form but only the cost of running the CBT.
"But given the cost of diesel, we only allowed them to.....we are collecting from the students and passing to the centres. The advertisement is just coming out, we are going to allow them to charge N1,000 for UTME because of the cost of diesel in the past year.
"We have not increased the cost of form, we only allowed the centres to charge a bit more. We are going to collect it for them. Why are we collecting for them? If we leave them to do it, they will exploit the students. They would be collecting N4,000-N5,000 per student. Pay to us, we will transfer to you weekly," he said.
Speaking on the challenges CBT operators are facing, Mr Oloyede said the business is profitable. However, managers are stealing money from owners. He added that new fees will allow the operators to survive the inflationary pressure.
The House committee, chaired by Oboku Oforji (PDP, Bayelsa), is investigating the sales of government assets by JAMB.