Number Of Nigerian Students Overseas Surge By 93 Per cent – Statistics

The number of Nigerian students in the US has reportedly witnessed a drastic surge in recent times.

A recent report by an educational platform indicated that the US hosted a total of 13,762 students for the 2019/20 academic year.
The figures represent 93 percent of Nigerians on academic tourism in the US.

The report from Erudera said, from 2015/16 to 2019/20, the number of students increased by 28 percent, while the most drastic increase by 557 percent occurred from 1995/96 to 2019/20.

The same statistics revealed that in the 2018/19 academic year, Nigeria was listed in the 11th place among nations with the highest number of international students in the US.

This figure accounted for 1.2 percent of the total number of international students in that country.

These figures pale in the face of many more young Nigerians aspiring and struggling to gain admission into foreign institutions in the face of recurrent disruptions in the Nigerian public school system.

A public analyst on education, Richard Ewem, told our correspondent that the figure would continue to increase until Nigeria invests in and improves its education sector.

‘‘See don’t get me wrong, Studying abroad is good if you can afford it. Nigerians are smart people, very brilliant, they excel anywhere despite a poor start. So the issue of our students going abroad to study in droves may not be bad, but it tells a lot about what we have at home and the need to improve it.

But Gent Ukëhajdaraj of Erudera attributed the surge to the quality education and the multi-cultural environment that students enjoy overseas.

Meanwhile, statistics indicate that Nigerian students have contributed about $514m to the US economy.

At a public event recently, Aruna Amirthanayagam, the Country Public Affairs Officer of the US Embassy in Nigeria, said the country wanted more students to benefit from its educational system.

In 2017, Nigeria was ranked the highest source of African students in the United States, with 11,710 students that year, an increase of the 9.7 percent recorded in 2016.