Between January and June 2023, Nigerian students pursuing admissions in foreign universities spent a total of $340.84 million in supporting their application processes.
This information is derived from data provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) concerning the expenditure on educational services within the sectoral utilization of foreign exchange transactions.
CBN 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.
In June 2023, a notable reduction occurred when the bank reported an expenditure of $32.61 million.
When compared with $218.88m recorded in the first quarter of 2023, which is a decrease of $96.92m or 44.28 per cent.
It is reported that the monies remitted to foreign academic institutions were without significant reciprocity in the form of inflows from foreign sources to the local education sector.
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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 however predicted that the poor supply on CBN part meant 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.
Over the past few years, the inflow of dollars into Nigeria has been decreasing due to a decline in investments and reduced exports of crude oil.
Crude oil exports make up more than 90 percent of the country’s total export income.
