JAMB Principles of Accounts 2025 past questions

Checked by the Skolra question team · Last updated 23 October 2026

Ten questions from the 2025 JAMB Principles of Accounts paper, with answers and explanations. We hold 77 questions from this paper, and the Skolra app has all of them.

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2025 questions and answers

1.
The capital of a sole trader changes as a result of
1. A
  net profit or loss made and drawings taken
  Correct
2. B
  payment of cash to trade creditors
3. C
  purchase of goods on credit for resale
4. D
  receipt of cash from trade debtors
Show answerHide answer
Answer: A
Remember the capital equation for a sole trader:
Closing capital = Opening capital + Additional capital + Net profit − Drawings (and you subtract a net loss instead of adding profit).
From that formula, the only things that push the capital figure up or down are the profit or loss earned in the period and the drawings the owner takes out (plus any fresh capital he brings in). That is why net profit or loss made and drawings taken is correct.
So keep this rule at your fingertips: transactions that only exchange one asset or liability for another leave capital alone; only profit, loss, drawings and new capital introduced can change a sole trader's capital.
2.
In departmental accounts, rent is apportioned on the basis of
1. A
  turnover of each department
2. B
  floor area occupied by each department
  Correct
3. C
  value of assets used by each department
4. D
  number of employees in each department
Show answerHide answer
Answer: B
In departmental accounts, expenses that cannot be traced to one particular department are shared out using a basis that shows how each department benefits from the expense. Rent is paid for the building, so the department that occupies more space enjoys more of the rent. The correct basis is therefore the floor area (space) occupied by each department.
Other expenses of the same family follow the same rule: rates, insurance on the building, repairs to the premises, lighting and heating are all apportioned on floor area.
3.
The objective of a departmental accounts is to ascertain the
1. A
  financial position of each branch of the business
2. B
  total cost of goods sold by the whole business
3. C
  profit or loss made by each department
  Correct
4. D
  combined net profit of the entire organisation
Show answerHide answer
Answer: C
When a business runs several departments in the same establishment, it keeps one set of books but prepares a columnar trading and profit and loss account, giving every department its own column. Sales, purchases and direct expenses are posted to the department that earned or incurred them, while common expenses such as rent, rates, lighting and insurance are apportioned on a suitable basis (floor area, sales value, number of employees, and so on).
4.
Discounts received are
1. A
  expenses debited to the profit and loss account at year end
2. B
  allowances given to customers for prompt payment of debts
3. C
  allowances received from suppliers for prompt payment of debts
  Correct
4. D
  deductions from the list price for buying goods in bulk
Show answerHide answer
Answer: C
A cash discount is the small reward a trader gets for paying a debt quickly. When your supplier (creditor) allows you something off because you settled early, that allowance is a discount received. So the correct completion is allowances received from suppliers for prompt payment of debts.
Remember the treatment: discount received is a gain/income to the business. In the three-column cash book it goes in the discount column on the credit (payments) side, and the total is posted to the credit side of the discount received account. At the end of the year it is credited in the profit and loss account, usually added to gross profit.
5.
Which of the following is a primary source of entry into the debtors ledger?
1. A
  Petty cash book
2. B
  Purchases day book
3. C
  Returns outwards book
4. D
  Sales day book
  Correct
Show answerHide answer
Answer: D
The debtors ledger (also called the sales ledger) keeps the personal account of every customer who buys goods on credit. Entries do not jump straight into that ledger; they are posted from a book of original (primary) entry.
Credit sales are first recorded in the sales day book, which the book-keeper writes up from the duplicate copies of sales invoices sent to customers. Each customer's invoice total is then posted to the debit side of his account in the debtors ledger, while the periodic total goes to the credit of the sales account. That is why the sales day book is the primary source of entry into the debtors ledger.
6.
In bank reconciliation, when a cash book shows a credit balance, uncredited cheques are:
I. deducted from the cash book balance
II. added to the bank statement balance
III. added to the cash book balance
1. A
  I only
2. B
  II and III only
3. C
  I and II only
4. D
  III only
  Correct
Show answerHide answer
Answer: D
A credit balance in the cash book means the account is overdrawn — the business owes the bank. Once you are dealing with an overdraft, every addition and deduction in the reconciliation statement is reversed, and that is exactly what this question is testing.
Where the others go wrong. The pairing of I and II is the answer for a debit (favourable) cash book balance, where the cash book figure is the higher one: there you deduct uncredited cheques from the cash book and add them back to the bank statement balance. Candidates memorise that rule and forget to reverse it for an overdraft. Choosing I alone makes the same mistake, only half of it. The pairing of II and III cannot stand at all, because if the cheques are added to the cash book overdraft to arrive at the bank figure, then working backwards from the bank statement they must be deducted, not added — I and III are opposites, and II can only ever travel with I.
7.
Taiwo is a sole trader who keeps his petty cash on the imprest system, the imprest amount being #4,000.

The following transactions took place for a particular month:

Dec 1 petty cash in hand 517
1 petty cash to imprest 3,483
6 Bought notebooks 328
7 Paid wages 914
14 Bought postage stamps 375
16 Paid to J. Thomas, a creditor 536

21 Paid wages 928
23 Bought envelopes 437
27 Bought postage stamps 210

Amount spent on stationery is
1. A
  ₦765
  Correct
2. B
  ₦585
3. C
  ₦1,350
4. D
  ₦328
Show answerHide answer
Answer: A
₦765 is correct. In an analytical petty cash book, each payment is entered under the analysis column that matches what it was for. Only two of the payments in the month are for stationery: the notebooks bought on 6 Dec (₦328) and the envelopes bought on 23 Dec (₦437).
₦328 + ₦437 = ₦765.
The postage stamps bought on 14 Dec (₦375) and 27 Dec (₦210) are not stationery — they belong in their own Postage column, giving ₦585. That figure is a common slip when a candidate lumps stamps in with stationery.
Adding the stamps to the notebooks and envelopes (328 + 437 + 375 + 210) gives ₦1,350, which overstates stationery by pulling in the postage items as well.
8.
According to the entity concept, ownership is
1. A
  vested in the management of the business
2. B
  transferred to the creditors of the business
3. C
  merged with the business as a single unit
4. D
  separate and distinct from the business
  Correct
Show answerHide answer
Answer: D
The entity concept (also called the business entity or separate entity concept) says that a business is treated in the books as a unit standing on its own, quite apart from the person who owns it. That is why the correct completion is that ownership is separate and distinct from the business.
9.
Shares issued below the nominal value are referred to as shares at
1. A
  Discount
  Correct
2. B
  Premium
3. C
  Call
4. D
  Par
Show answerHide answer
Answer: A
Every share has a nominal (face/par) value printed on the share certificate. The relationship between the price a company actually charges for the share and this nominal value gives it a special name:
If shares are issued for less than their nominal value, they are issued at a discount. For example, a share with a nominal value of ₦1 sold to investors for 80k is issued at a discount of 20k.
10.
The transfer of goods between departments is recorded by debiting
1. A
  the transferring department and crediting the receiving department
2. B
  the general trading account and crediting the receiving department
3. C
  the receiving department and crediting the transferring department
  Correct
4. D
  the purchases account and crediting the transferring department
Show answerHide answer
Answer: C
In departmental accounts, each department is treated as if it were a separate little business trading on its own. So when goods move from one department to another, we must charge the department that collects the goods and relieve the department that gives them out.
The receiving department has, in effect, bought the goods — the value comes into its cost of sales, and value received is a debit. The transferring department has parted with the goods — that cost must be taken away from it, and value given out is a credit. Hence the entry: Dr Receiving department, Cr Transferring department.

The questions come from past JAMB, WAEC and NECO papers. We use software to help write the answer options and explanations, and every answer is checked twice before it goes on the site. How we check

Spotted a wrong answer? Tell us from the app or on the contact page and we check it.

Practise all 77 questions we hold from the 2025 paper, on a timed CBT screen

Every question has the answer and an explanation, in the Skolra app.

Download for Windows Download for Mac

About the app · Skolra for Windows · Skolra for Mac

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2025 past questions

JAMB Principles of Accounts 2025 questions and answers

Practise all 77 questions we hold from the 2025 paper, on a timed CBT screen

More Principles of Accounts past questions

Other Principles of Accounts years

Other 2025 JAMB papers