JAMB to build N6bn new headquarters in Abuja

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that it plans to move its headquarters from Bwari Area Council to Central Area in the Federal Capital City (FCC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

It said the proposed new headquarters would cost N6 billion.

The JAMB Director of Finance and Administration, Mr. Mufutau Bello, disclosed this on Thursday when it appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) investigative hearing initiated by a query from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) over dwindling revenues to the federal government.

He stated: “We are proposing to move our central headquarters to the central area of Abuja.

“We have a plan of over N6 billion, but since we don’t collect subvention from the government for our overhead and capital, so every year, from 2018, we have been setting aside N2 billion, because our target is N6 billion to be able to acquire our headquarters in the central area.

“The money is in our TSA; we had a challenge in 2020 because of COVID-19, so we could not realise our budget. So far, we have realised about 5.5 billion.”

The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Oluwole Oke, said it was not wise to keep such an amount of money idle without investing it.

“You cannot keep such money idling in an account. That is poor treasury management,” Oke said