Ishaq Oloyede Reflects on 10-Year JAMB Legacy at Handing-Over Ceremony in Abuja

• Outgoing JAMB registrar Ishaq Oloyede spoke at his handing-over ceremony in Abuja on Friday, reflecting on a decade of leading the board
• Oloyede oversaw major welfare reforms including N8 billion committed to staff retirement savings and a 30% cut in UTME application fees
• Professor Segun Aina of Obafemi Awolowo University takes over as JAMB's sixth registrar following President Tinubu's appointment in May

Ishaq Oloyede, who is stepping down as registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says his proudest accomplishment is handing over an institution that is in better shape than it was when he took charge.

Oloyede made the remarks on Friday at his official handing-over ceremony held at JAMB's headquarters in Abuja, bringing to a close nearly a decade in which he oversaw sweeping changes to how Nigeria manages tertiary admissions.

Oloyede's Tenure at JAMB

Former President Muhammadu Buhari first appointed Oloyede, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin, as JAMB registrar on August 9, 2016. He was reappointed for a second term in August 2021. During that period, he anchored his administration on five pillars he outlined from the outset, covering staff welfare, transparency, discipline, technology, and institutional partnerships.

On welfare, Oloyede said the board committed over N8 billion to strengthening employee retirement savings and financial stability, paid retiring staff between N3 million and N10 million as exit packages, and introduced a 13th-month salary bonus to improve morale.

Examination duty incentives were also introduced at 10% and later raised to 20%, while free daily meals were provided to staff. The board also intervened in medical cases, including one instance where N12 million was provided to cover a staff member's treatment at the National Hospital.

For candidates, he said the cost of sitting the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was reduced by 30%, and tertiary institutions across the country collectively received about N750 million annually through the NATAPM Award.

Discipline and Technology Reforms

Oloyede was equally firm on discipline, noting that more than 10 staff members faced prosecution for misconduct during his tenure. He revisited the widely reported 2017 incident in which a JAMB staff member in Benue State claimed a snake swallowed N36 million collected from scratch card sales, describing it as one example of the measures taken to enforce accountability within the board.

On the technology front, his administration expanded Computer-Based Testing, built the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), and introduced advanced biometric verification, CCTV monitoring, digital PIN payments, and a Remote Authoring and Moderation System (RAMS). He acknowledged that the 2025 UTME technical failures, which forced the board to reschedule examinations for thousands of candidates and triggered public anger, demonstrated that no system is entirely immune to error.

Passing the Baton to Aina

President Bola Tinubu appointed Professor Segun Aina, a computer science professor at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, as JAMB's sixth registrar earlier in May 2026. Oloyede said he was confident Aina's background in information and communications technology, combined with his relative youth, would take the board beyond what his own administration achieved.

"I wish my successor, Prof. Segun Aina, great success and his success is the success of all of us who have been privileged to steer JAMB since its inception," Oloyede said.

JAMB gets new registrar

Legit.ng earlier reported that Professor Segun Aina officially assumed leadership of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Friday after Professor Is-haq Oloyede formally handed over to him, bringing a 10-year reign at the examination body to a close.

President Bola Tinubu's Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, confirmed the appointment in an official statement from the Presidency, which described Aina as a Professor of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.