Fatimah Otunsanya
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, says Schools in Nigeria charging tuition fees in foreign currencies should be closed.
Alake made the call at the Nigeria Gold Day Celebration on the sidelines of the 10th edition of Nigeria’s Mining Week, themed Nigeria Mining: From Progress to Global Relevance, on Wednesday in Abuja.
He criticised the practice and described it as a part of the leakages and loopholes in Nigeria’s economy, threatening its growth.
“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.
“If you look at the foreign currency that goes into some of this, it is humongous
“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 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 the Federal Government was introducing various measures, including digital mechanisms, to ensure that all leakages in Nigeria’s gold value chain were blocked and every loophole sealed.