Data obtained on Sunday from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s website revealed that under President Major General Muhammadu Buhari, the educational sector of Nigeria saw significant capital flight (retd).
According to figures on the CBN’s balance of payments, Nigerians spent a significant amount on international education during the past seven years—$3.5 billion (June 2015 to August 2022).
According to The PUNCH, industrial actions by unions like the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics have harmed education in Nigeria, particularly in the tertiary education sector.
University, polytechnic, and college of education academic programs in Nigeria were recently suspended for many months in 2022.
In accordance with CBN statistics acquired from the amount spent on educational services under the sectoral utilisation for transactions valid for foreign exchange, the top bank issued $375.99 million between June 2015 and December 2015.
According to additional data analysis, $269.1 million was disbursed in total in 2016.
When the apex bank revealed that a total of $514.16 had been released for international education, there was a significant increase.
A total of $546.78 was released in 2018.
In 2019, the bank released $197.52 million, a significant reduction from the previous year.
Additionally, it was mentioned that $270.42 million was made available in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The bank recorded a total of $720.05 million released for the same purpose in 2021, which represents a significant increase.
Only the data from January to August of 2022 has been made accessible thus far, and it shows that $609.5 million has been released in total.
According to data from the apex bank, under Buhari, Nigerians sent more than $3.5 billion to international academic institutions without receiving a sizable amount of foreign funding for the nation’s education system.
According to economists, the massive net dollar withdrawals have two negative effects: they underinvest in domestic education and put pressure on the value of the naira.
Nigeria’s foreign reserves are negatively impacted by the strong demand for dollars needed to pay for overseas educational institutions, which also adds significantly to the pressure on the currency rate.
