The energetics of the adsorption and decomposition of ammonia on Nb(100) surface was investigated by the method of unity bond index-quadratic exponential potential (UBI-QEP). The experimental as well as theoretically derived atomic heats of adsorption were used as the input data and the results were compared with the findings of local density functional theory (LDFF) and non-local density functional theory (NLDFT). The method was capable of correctly predicting the fragmentation of ammonia on 4-fold hollow sites on the surface of Nb(100) and magnitudes of the heats of adsorption and activation energies were more realistic.