Nigerian students, dependants contribute £1.9bn to UK

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An intelligent analysis by SBM Intelligence unveiled Nigerian students and their dependents have contributed an estimated £1.9bn to the economy of the United Kingdom (UK) in one year.

In the data which covered 2021/2022 academic session, made available to Punch correspondent on Wednesday,  it was estimated that a sum of £680,620,000 was reportedly paid as school fees with a total of £54.3m paid in taxes by working spouses of the students.

Further analysis of the data also revealed an estimated sum of £41.7m paid as health insurance; £408.37m was paid as rent while a total of £151.26m was paid as national insurance.

It would be recalled that foreign universities abroad profited from the gross underfunding of tertiary institutions in the country.

For instance, Nigerians spent $609.5m to acquire foreign education between January and August 2022. This was based on data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Recent data released by the Home Office of the United Kingdom revealed that the number of study visas released to Nigerians increased by 222.8 per cent to 65,929 in June 2022 from 20,427 in the same period of 2021.