Nigerians travelling to the United Kingdom (UK), United States, and other countries in the developed world, through the students’ routes, may face some challenges going forward, as Access Bank limited the foreign exchange (FX) allocation designed for this purpose.
In a circular cited by BizWatch Nigeria, Access Bank stated that students without account in its system would no longer have access to the forex they need for their tuition fees and basic needs abroad.
The new move, according to the financial institution, was floated to optimise its FX allocation.
Also, as part of the new move, individual students processing their travelling would only have access to a maximum fee of $1,500.
The circular read: “We will process only one Maintenance/Upkeep request yearly per applicant for a maximum amount of $1,500 and only for customers whose school fees were processed through Access Bank. This is subject to Maintenance/Upkeep not having already been disbursed previously at any time this year.
“Where the original school fees payments were settled through other banks, we will not process the corresponding Maintenance/Upkeep requests. Applicants will be advised to contact the bank that originally processed their school fees.
“All applications that meet the above criteria will be processed and disbursed within 30 days from the date of approval, confirming that funds and documents are in line with requirements and will remain subject to FX availability
“PTA/BTA requests will be processed and disbursed subject to FX availability and within 14 days of approval.”
What you should know
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had last year (2021) floated ‘Form A’, which is an application form designed to help people pay for service transactions (invisible trade).
Through this initiative, Nigerian students have been able to fund their tuition fees and other school expenses while they study abroad at cheaper exchange rates when compared to the Black Market rates.
