The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has stated that schools in Nigeria collecting tuition fees in foreign currencies should be shut down.
Alake made this statement during the Nigeria Gold Day Celebration, held alongside the 10th edition of Nigeria’s Mining Week, themed Nigeria Mining: From Progress to Global Relevance, on Wednesday in Abuja.
He condemned the practice, describing it as one of the economic leakages and loopholes hampering the nation’s development.
“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 these leakages and loopholes that we say exist in our economy that people do not really take these things very seriously,” he added.
He explained that the amount of foreign currency spent on such school fees was enormous.
“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,” he said.
“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 naira; it’s not done,” he continued.
“It’s only in this country that I see so many contradictory things that really demolish the economy,” he lamented.
According to Alake, there is a need for Nigerians to reorient their value system towards pursuits that are “substantial, productive, constructive and regenerative” for national advancement.
The minister revealed that the Federal Government was implementing several measures, including digital systems, to block all financial leakages within Nigeria’s gold value chain and to eliminate existing loopholes.
He noted that this initiative would reduce personal cash dealings, curb corruption, and position Nigeria’s gold as a credible global medium of exchange.
Alake further explained that the Federal Government’s National Gold Purchase Programme (NGPP), administered through the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), was created to boost Nigeria’s foreign reserves and stabilise the naira.
He clarified that the NGPP, which forms part of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Initiative (PAGMI), enables the government to buy gold directly from artisanal miners in naira rather than expending foreign currency on international gold purchases.
In her address, the Executive Director of SMDF, Hajia Fatima Shinkafi, stated that, contrary to global trends, gold exploration funding in Nigeria was currently on the rise.
Shinkafi highlighted that gold acts as a secure asset within the broader economic framework and urged participants at the conference to take advantage of Nigeria’s gold investment prospects.
“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 this Nigeria’s Gold Day 2025 as a pivotal turning point,” she added.
The Nigeria Mining Week, which runs from October 13 to 15, is organised by the Miners Association of Nigeria in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the VUKA Group.
