$2.5b expenses of Nigerian students increase along with rise in visa approvals
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Upsurge for United Kingdom study visa by Nigerians has raised their spending to $2.5 billion a year which in turn has drained foreign reserves, says Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele.
He disclosed foreign exchange (forex) oil sales accruals into external reserves have dried up but the CBN has introduced measures to boost forex earnings through non-oil export, which are yielding results.
“As we all know, for example, the official foreign exchange receipt from crude oil sales into our official reserves has dried up steadily from above $3.0bn monthly in 2014 to an absolute zero dollars today,” Emefiele said at the 57th annual bankers dinner of the Charted Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos.
“To put this drawback into perspective, it is equally no news that the number of student visa issued to Nigerians by the UK alone has increased from an annual average of about 8,000 visas as of 2020 to nearly 66,000 in 2022, which implies an eight-fold surge to about $2.5bn annually in study-related foreign exchange outflow to the UK alone.”
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Mismatch between forex demand and supply
“It is against the backdrop of the worsening mismatch between foreign exchange market demand and supply, and the need to boost foreign exchange earnings that the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee initiated the RT200 programme in February 2022,” Emefiele said, per reporting by The PUNCH.
He explained RT200 was devised to tackle the fundamental problem in the repatriation of non-oil export proceeds, and it has recorded resounding success.
Inflows through the programme in 2022 rose to about $1.6 billion and could surpass $2.5 billion by year-end, he enthused.
CIBN President Ken Opara commended CBN interventions in the economy.
“During the year,” he said, “the Central Bank of Nigeria has continued to be purposeful in curtaining economic shocks from the aftermath of the 4th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep inflation tidings and other related economy indices, most especially local currency, from distortions, exacerbated by declining production levels fuelled by the high cost of production, insecurity, dwindling government revenues, foreign exchange volatility and the uncertainty in the global oil market.”
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