Nigeria spends $3.5b on foreign education while local varsities lack facilities
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Poor facilities in tertiary schools – which often force lecturers to go on strike – have forced citizens to spend $3.5 billion on foreign education since Muhammadu Buhari became President seven years ago, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data shows.
CBN figures on educational services under the sectoral utilisation for transactions valid for foreign exchange (forex) state $375.99 million was released between June 2015 and December 2015.
Addition releases are as follows:
- 2016 – $269.1 million
- 2017 – $514.16 million
- 2018 – $546.78 million
- 2019 – $197.52 million
- 2020 – $270.42 million
- 2021 – $720.05 million
- 2022 (January to August) – $609.5 million
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No reciprocity
Nigerians have remitted more than $3.5 billion to foreign educational institutions under Buhari without reciprocity in form of inflows from foreign sources to the local education sector, according to reporting by The PUNCH.
The huge net dollar outflows have dual adverse effects of underinvestment in domestic education and pressure on naira exchange rate, economists said.
High demand for dollars to pay foreign educational institutions also affects Nigeria’s external reserves.
Buhari’s ASUU failings cost Nigerians $609m in foreign education
Nigerians spent $609.5 million on foreign education in the first eight months of this year, spanning January to August 2022 (8M 2022), as contained in the data compiled by the CBN.
The payment breaks down as follows:
- January – $60.20 million
- February – $69.9 million
- March – $87.26 million
- April – $78.62 million
- May – $82.70 million
- June – $84.90 million
- July $61.99 million
- August – $84.01 million
Buhari’s failings
Buhari has failed to properly fund tertiary education in all his seven years as President.
He degrades university education in Nigeria while he and others in the political class send their children to universities in Europe and America at public expense. And they rub it in by showing off the graduation of their children on social media.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) went on strike in February to expose the rot in the system, and the hypocrisy of Buhari and other members of the cabal that have grounded Nigeria.
ASUU suspended the strike in October based on a court order but the lecturers complained they have not been paid in full.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reports that about 76,338 Nigerians were studying abroad as of 2018, the highest from any African country.
British Home Office data shows the number of UK study visas issued to Nigerians rose 222.8 per cent from 20,427 in June 2021 to 65,929 in June 2022.
