Nigerians spent $378.77 million on foreign education between January and May 2022, according to figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In January 2022, the apex bank noted that a total of $60,202,730.84 was spent on foreign education, while noting that $69.9m was spent in February 2022.
In March 2022, there was a significant increase as the bank said $87.26 million was spent.
In April, the figures dropped a little as a total of $78.62 million was recorded by the apex bank.
The figure for May 2022 was stated as $82.70 million, making a total of $378.77 million spent so far in 2022.
The data from the apex bank revealed that Nigerians remitted more than $378.77 to foreign academic institutions in five months without significant reciprocity in form of inflows from foreign sources to the local education sector.
The huge net dollar outflows have dual adverse effects of underinvestment in domestic education and creating pressure on the naira exchange rate.
The high demand for dollars to pay foreign educational institutions affects Nigeria’s foreign reserves and increases pressure on the exchange rate.
On Monday, the Nigerian currency dropped further to N670 to the dollar at the parallel market.
