She Paid N4m to a JAMB Agent. Got Nothing. Now She Sells Water

LAGOS — Mama Chisom saved for five years. She sold fabric, cooked and sold food on weekends, and took every extra hour of work she could find. She saved N4 million to pay for her daughter’s university admission through what she was told was a guaranteed JAMB direct entry arrangement. Today, that money is gone. Her daughter did not get into any university. And Mama Chisom sells water on the street near their home in Isolo to survive.

The man who collected the money, a self-described JAMB agent, was arrested after a police tip-off from another victim. However, by the time officers moved in, he had spent or hidden most of the money. Mama Chisom recovered N300,000. The remaining N3.7 million is gone.

“I worked for five years for that money. Five years. I told myself my daughter would not suffer the way I suffered. I would give her a university education even if it killed me. And then one man took it all in one day,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Her daughter, 19-year-old Adaeze, now helps her mother sell water while trying to self-study for the UTME examination. She says she still wants to be a doctor. She is trying not to let the fraud steal her dream along with the money. But the emotional damage is real and runs deep.

A Crisis of Desperate Parents

Nigeria’s university admission crisis creates the perfect conditions for fraud. Competition for limited spaces at public universities is fierce. Private universities are unaffordable for most families. Desperate parents and students look for any shortcut, any arrangement, any agent who claims to have connections that can guarantee a place.

JAMB fraud operates at scale across Nigeria. Agents charge anything from N500,000 to N5 million for fake admission guarantees, forged results, or promises to access UTME question leaks. Most victims are from lower-income families who cannot afford to lose what they saved.

The new JAMB Registrar, 39-year-old Professor Segun Aina, has pledged to use technology to eliminate admission fraud. His background in computer engineering is specifically relevant to closing the loopholes that fraudsters exploit. Whether he succeeds will determine whether families like Mama Chisom’s are protected in future years.

Justice That Came Too Late

The fraudster who took Mama Chisom’s money has been charged in court. He faces several years in prison if convicted. However, the prosecution provides no financial relief for the family. Their money remains unrecovered. Their daughter’s dreams remain deferred.

Legal advocates said the Mama Chisom case highlights the inadequacy of victim compensation mechanisms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. When fraudsters are convicted, there is no structured process for compelling restitution to victims. The sentence punishes the criminal but does nothing for those they destroyed.

Mama Chisom said she does not hate the man who took her money. She says hatred is a luxury she cannot afford. What she wants is her daughter in a university. That desire keeps her selling water every morning. And it keeps Adaeze opening her textbooks every night, even when hope feels very far away.