UK Government Earns £1.9 Billion From Nigerian Students in One Year

Nigerians studying in the United Kingdom and their dependents contributed a sum of £1.9 billion to the UK economy during the 2021/2022 academic session.

This estimation was deduced from the money paid as school fees, health insurance, rent and taxes by the working dependents. 

According to the report released by SBM Intelligence, a sum of £680.6 million was paid as school fees by Nigerian students schooling in the UK while £54.3 million was made as taxes from the working dependents.

Similarly, the United Kingdom made £41.7 million as health insurance coverage from Nigerian students within the period under review. 

Additionally, a total of £408.37 million was paid as rent while a sum of £151.26 million was paid as national insurance.

Investors King earlier reported that Nigerians spent more than N5 trillion ($11.6 billion) on oversea education between 2019 and 2021. 

Analysts observed that the amount spent on foreign education has further put pressure on the naira. The incessant and increasing demand for foreign exchange could have hurt the value of Nigerian currency. 

Meanwhile, a report by the UK Home Office shows that the number of Nigerian students in the United Kingdom has jumped by 686 percent. This makes Nigerian students constitute the third largest foreign student group in the UK after India and China.

Many young Nigerians have continued to find their way overseas, despite the high exchange rate of foreign currencies against the naira. 

This has therefore led to a serious brain drain in the Nigerian marketplace. Some of the factors which contribute to the exodus as claimed by the migrants are the incessant academic strike and the country’s weak economy. The National Bureau of Statistics has put Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 33.3 percent. 

According to the UK Home Office, 65,929 Nigerians were granted a sponsored study visa in the year ending June 2022. This is a rise of 57,545 (686 percent) compared to 2019 when 8,384 were given.