CBN: UK Varsity Demands Prompt Payment Of Nigerian Students’ Tuition

By Tosin Olatokunbo

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has been urged by the Manchester Metropolitan University, MMU to do something about the delay in paying school fees of Nigerian students studying in the university. This was contained in a letter written by the university to the CBN, according to TheCable.

The letter is believed to have been sent to the apex bank following suggestions that it will, by the end of this yea,r stop providing forex to Nigerians studying abroad through the official window.

Watchers of the bank said the Godwin Emefiele-led CBN is currently tinkering with different measures to tackle the forex crisis rocking the country.

Experts insist that they would not rule out any measures to stop the flight of scarce forex by the CBN.

For instance, some have speculated that the CBN, will by December 2022 withdraw the Form A which allows foreign students to purchase forex at official lower rate.

The university had responded to TheCable’s query on the suggestion that CBN was about to withdraw the Form A thus:  “we understood that the CBN’s Form A discounted rate was to be withdrawn at the end of this year, and therefore, we gave our students guidance to help deal with the issues this might present.

“At Manchester Metropolitan University, our primary concern is always for the wellbeing of our students. Nigerian students primarily pay via the CBN using the Form A discounted rate.

“If this was withdrawn it may lead students to use parallel market payments which comes with a significant additional premium, adding to the financial burden for our students.”

The apex bank has denied this, saying it has no intention to do that.

Despite the clarification, the UK university said it’s now taking too long, at least six weeks, for the CBN to clear students’ tuition fees.

The university said in the letter to CBN that “In recent months we have seen payments from students coming via the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) taking six to seven weeks or longer to reach us. A student coming to the University in September needs to make a statutory payment to secure their visa, and if this process is taking six to seven weeks it creates unnecessary stress for the students.”