Nigerians seeking admissions to foreign universities spent $340.84m to fund their application between January and June 2023, findings by have shown.
This figure is according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s data on the amount spent on educational services under the sectoral utilisation for transactions valid for foreign exchange.
The apex bank said that in April 2023, a total of $40.54m was spent on foreign education, while noting that $48.81m was spent in May 2023.
However, in June 2023, there was a significant decrease as the bank stated that $32.61m was spent.
When compared with $218.88m recorded in the first quarter of 2023, which is a decrease of $96.92m or 44.28 per cent.
Also, the quarter performed poorly when compared with figures from the second quarter of 2022 with a performance decrease of $124.42m (50.5 per cent).
Experts argue that the poor supply by the CBN means migrating students had been forced to source dollars from Bureau De Change operators, owing to delays by banks to process respective Form A.
Recent data (which was the last released document by the commission) released by the Home Office of the United Kingdom revealed that the number of study visas released to Nigerians increased by 222.8 per cent, with 65,929 issued as of June 2022 as against 20,427 during the same period in 2021.
The Central Bank has a backlog of accumulated forex demand on the official market, which effectively forces individuals and businesses to head to the black market if they need dollars.
But dollar flows to Nigeria have been falling in the last few years due to declining investment and lower exports of crude oil, which account for more than 90 per cent of the country’s export income.
