Nigerians spent US$1.38 billion funding students to acquire qualifications in universities and colleges abroad in the first nine months of 2022.

Nigeria’s central bank has begun selling a fresh supply of dollars for students to pay for school fee payments and travel abroad, increasing the amount they are allowed to buy and enabling them to avoid paying heavy premiums for the currency on the black market.

Nigerians hoping to buy pounds, US dollars and euros are facing processing times of up to three times as long as those before President Muhammadu Buhari banned forex sales for overseas study. Still, agencies in the country report demand for overseas study remains high.