As dollar scarcity worsens in Nigeria, parents who have
children schooling abroad have taken their frustrations to
banks, with some of them weeping openly, as Saturday
PUNCH observed.
Investigations by our correspondents revealed that the
frustrations by some parents who cannot access forex to
send to their children abroad have brought out their emotional
sides, while affected students have been crying out for help in
foreign lands.
When one of our correspondents visited some banks along
Muritala Muhammed Way, Unity Road and Taiwo Road in
Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Wednesday and Thursday,
some bank customers, who were there to buy dollars,
expressed disappointments at the scarcity of the currency.
One of the customers, Alhaja Salamatu Ajibola, who
practically broke down in tears, lamented that the education
of her two children schooling in the United States had 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.
Ajibola said that it had been difficult for her to send her
children dollars for their personal and educational needs. She
said 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 spoke to Saturday PUNCH on the
condition of anonymity, in a first generation bank in Bauchi
State, said it had become impossible for him to meet the
financial needs of his children schooling abroad.
She said she was seeking other ways of sending money
abroad due to the difficulty she was facing in getting dollars
to send to her children.
“Our children abroad are crying and we parents are also
crying,” she said.
“They are confused and we are also confused because we
can’t send money to them and they can’t receive. They are in
misery, hunger and depression.
“They can’t even feed well because they can’t get money for
their upkeep.”
She, therefore, called on the government to “create an escape
route so that children will not continue to suffer.”
Also, Mr. Jimoh Abdulganiyu, whose son is studying medicine
in Ukraine, said he could not get dollars, even at the black
market, to send to him.
Abdulganiyu said his son was given a warning letter by the
school authorities over delay in payment of accommodation
fees and he risks being asked to vacate the dormitory soon.
He expressed fears of the possibility of buying fake dollars
because of the pressure of getting dollars, which has been
pushing parents to the parallel market.
He said, “Sometimes, I would get to the bank by 6.40am,
before the official opening hour, to stand a good chance of
getting dollars through the Western Union or Money Gram.
“And this does not mean that I would automatically get the
dollars, I still have to lobby before I could get it. Even at that,
there is a limit to the amount I can get.”
One of our correspondents, who visited two commercial banks
in the Sabo, Yaba area of Lagos on Thursday, observed that
there were no dollars for sale. Sabo is a black market hub for
forex activities in Lagos.
There, a 65-year-old man, Mr. Obafemi Solomon, who also
expressed frustration with the situation, struggled to fight
back tears as he narrated his ordeal.
Solomon said he was indebted to some of his friends in the
United States, where his daughter was schooling.
Solomon said his friends had had to bail him out of the
financial problem because he felt it was unwise to exchange
naira for dollars at the present exchange rate.
He said, “What I am doing right now is to beg my friends who
are in the US to help me pay for my daughter’s tuition. It
does not make any sense to change naira for dollars and send
to her. There is even no dollar to buy.”
A pensioner, Mr. Olu Ajibade, who resides in Ekiti, also shared
his plight, saying things had not been this tough in the past
four years that his son had been in Middlesex University,
London.
Calling for the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market,
Ajibade said, “Now we rely on the black market and the forex
rate is very high. If you don’t go to them then you are left to
face the bank and they have so many rules you have to oblige
to before you can get money from them.
“You will have to fill so many forms, get a letter from the
school and go through so many rigorous processes. With that,
it is not even guaranteed that you would get money from
them. Honestly, it is not easy at all. Unfortunately, there are
no other alternatives. The black market that could have been
an alternative is not properly funded. The truth is that if you
want to buy £3,000 in the black market, they tell you that they
don’t have more than £800. For instance, we needed to pay
school fees of about £10,000 but all we could do was pay half
because of the scarcity of foreign currency.”
A Nigerian student studying in a US university, Adebayo
Kabiru, told Saturday PUNCH that he would have gone
bankrupt if not for the menial jobs he was doing.
In a telephone interview with one of our correspondents,
Kabiru said, “My parents have not been able to send me
money since January. At a point, I got frustrated, but I had to
do something. So now, I do some menial jobs to pay for my
upkeep.”
Also, a student studying in Russia, who spoke with Saturday
PUNCH, said she was about to be deported because her visa
had expired and her parents could not send her money to
renew it.
She said, “My father has been trying to send me money for
the past two weeks for me to settle my visa problem and
other things, but has been unable to do so. I am about to be
deported and when that happens, I will lose the opportunity of
rounding off my last session here in Russia.”
Simon Uwem, a student studying for his Master’s degree at a
university in Indiana, US, revealed that Nigerian students
abroad have been having rough times.
He said, “I have been able to survive because I have a
research position in school and I get paid very well. I was
hired by the school for the job. The truth is that if you are
intelligent, you will survive.
“But it has been so tough for some students here. Asking your
parents for $1,000 means they need to look for N400,000.
Some students don’t even get to hear from their parents any
longer. They have resorted to doing menial jobs or marrying
Akata (American citizens) here.
“A professor recently spoke to me about getting more foreign
students from Africa and I told him that finance had become a
challenge even if such students get scholarships. A textbook
here costs up to $200. It has been quite tough.”
SOURCE: PUNCH
