JAPA: Banks issues $533.48m for foreign education

Nigerian banks have released $533.48 million provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria towards international education.

The sum of the amounts released between October 2022 and March 2023 was used to calculate the figure from the most recent statistical bulletin issued by the apex bank.

However, experts anticipate that given the CBN’s recent unification of the exchange rate, the amount for the second quarter of 2023 sparring between April and June 2023 may be higher.

The exchange rate between the black market and the official rate had been significantly different before the unification.

The japa wave has also kept the naira under intense pressure as emigrating students have been forced to buy dollars from Bureau De Change operators because banks are taking too long to process their respective Form As.

96.19 million dollars were released in October 2022, according to CBN data. An increase occurred in November 2022 when a total of $125.29 million was made accessible for the exact reason.

The CBN noted that a sum of $93.12m was released in December 2022. A more thorough investigation revealed that in January 2023, $91.45 million was made available for educational purposes. Just $74.03M was released in February 2023, a slight reduction in the amount.

 As the CBN disclosed, only $53.40M was released, which represented a slight decline from that in March 2023.

According to News, Nigerians have continued to en masse leave the country in search of foreign academic degrees.

Nigerians were granted 65,929 study visas as of June 2022, up from 20,427 during the same period in 2021, according to recently released data from the UK’s Home Office. This represents an increase of 222.8 percent.

At the Federal University of Technology, Minna, an education professor. Prof. Alabi Thomas blamed the migration on government policies that, in his opinion, have continued to strangle the education sector in an interview with our correspondent.

Thomas urged the new administration to make sure that the sector is properly catered to.