According to figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerians spent $1.38 billion on international education from January 2022 to September 2022.
The amount was however lower by more than half a million US
dollars compared to the amount spent over the same period in 2021, when the
country paid $1.88bn for international education.
Quoting Central Bank of Nigeria figures, it reported that
despite “negatively” impacting the country’s balance of payments and despite
being likely the largest expenditure on foreign education in Africa, the total
in 2022 represents the country’s lowest spending on study abroad by Nigerians
since 2016.
The scenario is worsened by the fact that the country in
return did not receive any significant “form of cash inflow from foreign
students”, the trends website laments, noting that the data was in tandem with
the high mobility of Nigerians moving to foreign countries using “the education
route”, it noted.
This one-sided trend is also a result of the fact that
“education has become the easiest way for Nigerians to get a visa into European
countries, especially the United Kingdom”, where Africa’s largest economy and
most populous nation sends its biggest share of students.
In the 2021/22 academic year, some 44,195 Nigerian students
were enrolled at UK universities, HESA statistics show.
“Nigerians who want to relocate abroad now apply for
admission to foreign universities, and upon admission apply for study visas,
which allow them to work and school in the host country during the course of
their studies,”
The data comes at a time when the country’s importance as a
source market continues to grow, for example sending 21,660 to Canadian
universities in 2022, the fifth highest in the list of nationalities issued
with the most Canadian study permits. This represented a growth of 17.8% when
compared to the previous year.
The figures also seem to agree with previous ones by the CBN
which indicate that that Nigerians spent about $221 million on foreign
education between December 2021 and February 2022.
The CBN analysis further showed that in December 2021 alone,
a whopping $90.67m was spent on foreign education while in January 2022, a
total of $60.2m went to the same, an amount that rose to nearly $70m in
February of the same year.
Nigeria is the biggest source market for international
students in Africa, with thousands studying in North America, Europe, Asia and
South Africa.
A total of 71,133 of them were enrolled in universities
abroad in 2022 according to the US Department of Commerce. Some 14,438 joined
classes in the US, according to 2022 Open Doors data.
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