Over 1 Million Naira per Term – Parents condemn Top School for Charging in Dollars

We received this email report today about a popular Lagos school still charging in US Dollars, almost a year after CBN made it very clear it’s illegal to do so.

In March 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria banned businesses based in Nigeria from charging in foreign currency.

Read below:

The rich they say, also cry, has been reflected with parents of pupils in the School in Ikoyi, where United States dollars or its equivalent in the black market has been demanded from parents for school fees for the last three terms- despite the ban by CBN that no school, operating within the ambit of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, should charge any tuition fees in foreign currency, especially as 90% of their operating cost are in the local currency.

A few parents who spoke in anonymity, found this demand from the school outrageous considering that hard times had fallen on most parents in Nigeria. They were of the opinion that school fees by virtue of the Forex crisis had almost doubled, compared to what was obtainable from early last year. Parents are now expected to pay one million Naira a term considering the current exchange rate of 318.

Some angry parents have also voiced out the illegality of this operations and some are in the process of bringing litigations against the school, while others have withdrawn their kids in protest. A concerned parent found this to be an act of economic sabotage especially with the new “Change Mantra” by the Buhari administration, as certain institutions must understand that it cannot be business as usual, must conform with the laws of the country, that Dollars must not collected for any local transaction.

On Investigation, we found out that 90% of the workforce of School were paid in Naira and as such there could be no tenable reason for this demand, which is rather unpatriotic, as no school in the UK or the United States would accept the Nigerian Naira from a Nigerian student.

Other top schools like CSI Lekki (Children’s International School) and St. Saviors Ikoyi took a cue after complaints from parents and identified with their plights last year and fixed their school fees in Naira, which parents found laudable.

***the name of the school has been omitted