The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has said, calling the practice a dangerous economic loophole that fuels naira depreciation.
Alake made the call on Wednesday during the Nigeria Gold Day Celebration, held on the sidelines of the 10th edition of the Nigeria Mining Week in Abuja. The event was themed “Nigeria Mining: From Progress to Global Relevance.”
He described the practice of some schools in Nigeria demanding tuition payments in foreign currencies as “one of the major leakages weakening the national economy.”
“I am still going to make a proposal to the Federal Executive Council that all those schools in Nigeria that are charging in foreign currencies should be closed,” he said.
“These are some of the leakages and loopholes that exist in our economy that people do not take seriously.”
Alake lamented that such schools force parents to seek foreign exchange locally, thereby increasing pressure on the naira and driving up the value of the dollar.
“If your child is attending a school in Abuja or Lagos and is paying 10,000 pounds or dollars as their fees, that means you’ll be looking for naira to buy dollars — driving the value of the dollar up. Whereas this school is in Abuja, in Nigeria.
You can’t go to the UK, establish a school, and then be charging in naira. It’s only in this country that I see so many contradictory things that demolish the economy,” he added.
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The minister also disclosed that the Federal Government is introducing digital mechanisms to block revenue leakages across Nigeria’s gold value chain, strengthen transparency, and minimize corruption.
He said the initiative would ensure that Nigeria’s gold industry becomes a reliable source of national income and a tool for stabilizing the naira.
Alake further highlighted the government’s National Gold Purchase Programme (NGPP), implemented through the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), as part of efforts to shore up foreign reserves.
According to him, the NGPP—an arm of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI)—enables the government to buy gold directly from artisanal miners in naira, rather than using foreign exchange to purchase gold abroad.
The Executive Director of the SMDF, Fatima Shinkafi, also spoke at the event, noting that gold exploration funding in Nigeria was growing, contrary to global trends.
“We implore everyone here to examine Nigeria’s gold resources and support the minister’s efforts to make Nigeria a premier destination for junior miners,” she said.
“In another year or so, let’s look at Nigeria’s Gold Day 2025 as a pivotal turning point.”
The Nigeria Mining Week, which runs from October 13 to 15, is organised by the Miners Association of Nigeria in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the VUKA Group.
