The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, has called for the closure of schools in Nigeria that charge tuition fees in foreign currencies, describing the practice as a serious economic problem that fuels the naira’s decline.
Alake made this known on Wednesday in Abuja during the Nigeria Gold Day Celebration, held alongside the 10th edition of the Nigeria Mining Week, themed “Nigeria Mining: From Progress to Global Relevance.”
According to him, collecting school fees in foreign currencies is one of the leakages weakening Nigeria’s economy and worsening the pressure on the naira.
“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.
These are some of these leakages and loopholes that we say exist in our economy that people do not really take these things very seriously,” he said.
Explaining the impact, Alake noted that when parents seek dollars to pay school fees locally, they increase demand for foreign exchange and drive up its value against the naira.
“If your child is attending a school in Abuja or Lagos or somewhere in the country and is paying 10,000 pounds or 10,000 dollars as their fees, that means you will be looking for naira to go and buy dollars.
Driving the value of dollar up, whereas this school is in Abuja in Nigeria, you can’t go to the UK, establish a school and then be charging naira, it’s not done.
It’s only in this country that I see so many contradictory things that really demolish the economy,” he said.
The minister said such practices reflect a deeper issue with the country’s value system and urged Nigerians to focus more on productive and sustainable economic behaviour.
He also shared updates on ongoing government reforms in the solid minerals sector, noting that the Federal Government is deploying digital systems to seal loopholes in the gold value chain and reduce corruption.
According to Alake, the National Gold Purchase Programme (NGPP), run through the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), allows the government to buy gold directly from artisanal miners in naira. This, he said, helps conserve foreign exchange and strengthen the national currency.
Alake added that the initiative, which is part of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI), aims to make Nigeria a stronger player in the global gold market.
In her remarks, Hajia Fatima Shinkafi, Executive Director of SMDF, said Nigeria’s gold exploration sector is growing and urged investors to take advantage of its potential.
“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.
In another year or so, let’s look at this Nigeria’s Gold Day 2025 as a pivotal turning point,” she said.
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.