HUNDREDS of Nigerian parents with children schooling abroad are faced with a terrible dilemma about how to pay their school fees as the current scarcity of dollars in the country has made it impossible for them to obtain foreign exchange.  

With crude oil now selling for about $30 a barrel compared with over $100 a barrel last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has less foreign exchange to sell to banks and bureaux de change. This has led to a scarcity of foreign exchange and parents with children overseas have been hard hit as they cannot obtain euros, dollars and pounds sterling with which to pay school fees. 

Many of them have taken their frustrations to banks, with some of them weeping openly, pleading for assistance. At one commercial bank in Ilorin, Alhaja Salamatu Ajibola, broke down in tears, lamenting the fact that the education of her two children schooling in the United States has been threatened by the development. 

She added that her children had been going without food due to her inability to send them money for their upkeep. Alhaja Ajibola added that she had visited one of the banks several times, hoping to send dollars to her children, only to be told that the currency was insufficient to meet customers’ demands. 

Another tearful parent, who visited a first generation bank in Bauchi State, said it had become impossible to meet the financial needs of his children schooling abroad. He added that he was seeking other ways of sending money abroad due to the difficulty he was facing in getting hold of dollars. 

“Our children abroad are crying and we parents are also crying. They are confused and we are also confused because we can’t send money to them and they can’t receive, so they are in misery, hunger and depression," he added. 

Jimoh Abdulganiyu, whose son is studying medicine in Ukraine, said he could not get dollars, even at the black market, to send to him. He added that his son was given a warning letter by the school authorities over the delay and he risks being asked to vacate the dormitory soon. 

Pensioner Olu Ajibade, who resides in Ekiti State, also shared his plight, saying things had not been this tough over the past four years that his son had been at Middlesex University in the UK.  Calling for the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market, Mr Ajibade said he is now dependent on the black market as the official foreign exchange rate is very high. 

Adebayo Kabiru, a student studying in a US university, said that he would have gone bankrupt if not for the menial jobs he was doing. He added that his parents were now unable to send him any money due to the currency crisis.