Before 2016, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was like any other government parastaltas in Nigeria, corrupt, inefficient, insensitive, phlegmatic and unorganized.

The organization was recycling mediocricrisy year in, year out. Her examination processes which served as the major basis of undergraduate admissions was conspicuously marred by irregularities. The organization started very late the use of technology that could have propelled the organization towards efficiency. It's Policies made undergraduate admissions to be nightmare dared only by the brave and the affluent. The hope for the children of the common people was very very thin as admission chances was far being based on merit but on money.

But then, in 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Professor Isiaq Oloyede as the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. All Nigerians had thought that it was going to be business as usual. They never as much as blink an eye to let drop their feeling of hope on JAMB under the new Registrar.

Since 2016 however, Professor Oloyede has been dolling out regular wonderful ideas and policies that have effectuated positive changes in the structure of JAMB, it's services and image and turnover.

Before Professor Oloyede's emergence, like other federal agencies in Nigeria, JAMB was generating a huge sum of money from millions of candidates every year but could not account for it and turned in peanuts into the coffers of the federal government of Nigeria. But with Professor Oloyede, the narrative changed.

Earlier this year, Vice President Kassim Shetima revealed that Prof Ishaq Oloyede is the first Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board to have made over N50bn for the Federal Government within a year. He said this when he represented President Bola Tinubu during a public engagement organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; The dialogue on “Youth, Religion, and the Fight against Corruption” held at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

While speaking on the issue of corruption in the public sector, during the said program, the Vice President noted that JAMB had never made up to $1m for the Federal Government before Oloyede assumed office.

Apart from that, Professor Isiaq had brought in many innovations and policies to check the irregularities that characterised JAMB in the past. Before now, many Direct entry candidates had been gaining admission into Nigerian universities with fake results and had been getting away with it because there was no structure in place to check the authenticity of the results used by such candidates. But that has stopped since 2023's new direct entry policy of JAMB. Among other things, direct entry candidates have to bring their original statement of results from recognized institutions for JAMB DE registration, as well as their 'O' Level certificate.

The case of Mmesoma in 2023 came to the mind to bring to the fore the level of manipulations going on, on JAMB portal with some candidates falsifying their score. But Professor Oloyede's JAMB immediately swung into action to stem such tide.

Staff welfare and other things have also improved under Professor Oloyede. It was also under him that JAMB now executes robust Advertisement and campaign to achieve better corporate image and to keep the public abreast of the up to the minute innovative policies of the organization.

Since assumption of office, Oloyede has been praised by stakeholders for transforming JAMB into a reference point in effective public service delivery, transparency and accountability.

Every year, Professor Oloyede takes the course of propelling the organization to even higher and enviable heights with the annual stakeholders policy meeting to discuss and evaluate the policies for the current year. This year, JAMB is set to hold its highly anticipated policy meeting on Thursday, July 18th. This meeting will mark the official commencement of the 2024 admission process into Nigerian tertiary institutions.

This crucial meeting will be used to again bring together key stakeholders in the education sector, including vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts, to discuss and establish policies governing the 2024 admission exercise.

According to Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the meeting will focus on setting the tone for the 2024 admission process, including candidate selection, admission quotas, and leveraging technology to enhance the admission process.

"The 2024 policy meeting is a critical milestone in our efforts to ensure a transparent, fair, and merit-based admission process," Oloyede had emphasized.

The meeting will address key issues such as the utilization of the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS), the introduction of new policies, and the review of existing ones.

For the above, Stakeholders in the education sector and the members of the public have praised JAMB for its dedication to ensuring an effective and results - oriented organization, which other Nigerian government agencies and parastaltas should emulate.