House of Rep to probe schools collecting fees in foreign currency
According to news reports from Punch, the House of Representatives, has on Tuesday, March 14, 2017,offerred to probe foreign schools situated in Nigeria collecting fees in foreign currency, noting that the lower chamber said that the practice is in disregard of the Federal Government’s policy.
This position attained by the lawmakers is reportedly a follow-up to a motion by Rep. Emmanuel Agboola (Ekiti-PDP) and 14 others.
In moving the motion, Agboola recalled that on April 17, 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular on “Currency Substitution and Dollarization of the Nigerian Economy” to reform the currency regulations.
The Rep. noted that this had been done in pursuant to Sections 15, 20(1) and (5) of the CBN Act, which illegalized pricing or denominating the cost of any product or service in any foreign currency in Nigeria besides the Naira.
He further expressed concern over the fact that the American International School, Abuja was charging school fees in the dollar currency.
Agboola also added that some other international institutions in the country were also collecting fees in foreign currencies, an act which is contrary to the government policy.
Punch reports that the Rep explained that the extant financial regulations were disregarded by AISA even when it was inclined to collect fees in Naira and could only accept the currency at parallel market rate.
The use of the parallel market rate to determine the amount of fees to be collected in Naira, according to the lawmakers, entailed that the parents paid at different rates.
“This depends on the rate in the black market and as such, parents of children in the same class end up paying different fees for their wards, depending on the day the payment was made,” he said.
