Abroad School Fees ▷ The Right Ways to Pay from Nigeria

Do you want to know how to pay school fees abroad from Nigeria using CBN Form A and other means?

If YES, then this is the only post to read today.

Getting started…

How to Pay School Fees Abroad from Nigeria

These are the best ways to pay school fees abroad from Nigeria:

1. Form A 

Form A is an application form designed by Central Bank of Nigeria to pay for service transactions (invisible trade) that allows customers to make payment for services such as school fees, technical fees, dividends, airline tickets, loans repayment, judgment debt, personal home remittance, PTA, BTA, etc.

Payment is through telegraphic transfer.

Each payment type has its specific document requirement as stipulated in the Central Bank of Nigeria FX Manual.

With Form A, you get forex at the official government exchange rate, which will save you money as compared to using the black market.

As an international student, you can use Form A to request for upkeep and have money transferred from your Nigerian bank account to your foreign bank account at the government official exchange rate.

Form A for School Fees Requirement

Here is the list of documents required to process school fees payment abroad through Form A:

• School admission letter and/or invoice stating the current fees to be paid.
• Bank account details of the school.
• A signed written instruction giving the bank the authority to debit your account.
• A duly completed Form A application form.
• A duly filled letter of indemnity if the name of the applicant differs from the name of the student.
• BVN and a valid means of ID of the applicant (Nigerian International Passport or Foreign passport with Nigeria as the place of birth, Driver’s License, Voter’s Card, National Identity Card).
• International data page of the student.
• First-degree certificate (for postgraduate students).
• You must be an account holder of the bank.
• Your account must be funded to cover the Naira equivalent of the requested amount.

To apply for FX to pay school fees abroad, visit any bank branch in Nigeria with the above documents.

How to Use Form A to Pay School Fees

Here are the steps to use Form A to pay school fees abroad:

• Login into the TRMS applicant portal.
• At the Trade Services TAB, click on Education Fees.
• Fill all the required fields properly.
• Attach Documents requested on the document Tab. Documents can be in the PDF/JPG/PNG/TIFF form and should not be over 1.99mb.
• Preview your form before submission by clicking on the preview tab at the top right of the page or NEXT at the bottom on the Page.
• An email will be sent notifying you that your application is being processed.

Note

• When filling the Form A in beneficiary information – provide details of the organization receiving the foreign exchange.
• If you’re trying to register on the site for Form A by entering your BVN and it says OTP has been sent to your mail – check your mail inbox, promotion, junk and spam folder.
• After getting approval via the trade system portal, payment of school fees to your school abroad takes around 1-2 weeks.
• After filling the form finish, you will receive an email with the AF-number in it when you submit the application.
• If you filled the Form A already and it has the status: disbursement supervision, with a note under it saying rejected insufficient fund, please start a new application. Ask your bank for their exchange rate, which is at about ₦462/$ currently (est./confirm) and fund your account sufficiently.
• To get the AF number, you will send to your bank after filling and submitting the Form A online. Just login, go to Form A and select history.
• If no branch is shown under your processing bank, clear your cookies and try again.
• In the payment mode section, select Telex or Swift.
• Telex is usually ready 24 hours after the transaction has been completed.
• Once your account equivalent is debited, the telex will be made available by your bank once the fund is completely transmitted. So, keep contacting your bank for the telex.
• Apart from the initial declaration payment of ₦5,000 for Form A, if you’re paying school fees/medicals, you will still have to pay the transfer charges.
• If FX is not available in the bank of request, cases can last up to 2 weeks.
• You can pay your tuition fee through the TRMS portal if you’re currently in the UK.
• If your school’s payment is online (no bank details), you can still make use of Form A. Just contact your school to provide their IBAN or account number.
• After following the procedure and still yet to be debited and your stage still shows ABD_REVIEWER, it means the first level reviewer has not opened the application. Continue to follow up the bank with your AF-number, while also emphasizing on your deadlines.
• If you submitted the E Form A and it’s been showing ADB Reviewer for days, you can cancel and create an application with another bank that has FX.
• In case you fill out Form A and later saw feedback stating that you need to attach your school invoice, if it was rejected, start a fresh application. If it wasn’t, just upload the outstanding document.
• If status reads: recommended for rejection (incomplete documentation), create a new application, and follow up with your bank.
• After being debited in Naira, and your university hasn’t yet received the funds, you can request for a telex copy of the transaction and forward it to the school as evidence of payment.
• If you decide to end the payment process, and are not interested in your school admission anymore, get your school to issue a refund.
• Banks rate for foreign school fees differs and how fast they will transfer the money depends on the volume of the money they have to transfer and their services.
• The maximum limit of forex you can buy for school fees abroad per semester is USD $15,000 or its equivalent in Pound Sterling or Euro and the fees will be paid directly to the institution’s account.
• Be a customer of most of the Nigerian banks to make school fees payments to institutions abroad.

2. Domiciliary Account

A domiciliary account is basically an account that holds foreign currencies while you are in Nigeria.

This method is normally more expensive than Form A because of BDC rates.

If time is against you and you need your school to get tuition fee payment within a day or two, using a domiciliary account is your best bet to pay your school fees abroad from Nigeria.

Using this method, the school abroad receives your payment within 1 to 3 business days.

Here, open a domiciliary account in Nigeria or use that of someone you know to make the payment for your school fees.

If you already have an existing domiciliary account, all you need to do is:

• Fund your account with the amount that will cater to your school’s fees and banking charges.
• Present to your bank the admission letter from the foreign tertiary institution.
• Get Form A to fill in the details.
• The account will be debited.

You can either complete the transaction from the comfort of your home using your bank mobile app, internet banking, or by visiting a bank branch to start the transaction.

You need to have extra money on your domiciliary account for bank transfer charges.

The bank charges include a telex transfer charge (optional but necessary), offshore charges and £10 if the correspondence bank needs to deduct.

Also, for transferring monthly upkeep for international students, parents, sponsors and guardians could make transfers from their personal domiciliary account.

3. Payment Agents

Paying your school fees abroad from Nigeria using local and international agent is also recommended.

If your preferred institution fixes a deadline on their tuition fee, use a payment method with fast processing rates.

This will save you from losing your admission because of late payment.

Final Words

Although cheaper and secured, using Form A to pay for tuition fees abroad from Nigeria can be time-consuming, while the domiciliary account is more costly.

However, if you are having a delay in making payment via Form A for your school fees abroad, then try using a legit payment agent in or outside Nigeria.

You will be charged at a lower rate too.

Hope you learnt a lot from this article.

Now go sort out those tuition fees so you can get your final acceptance documents in Canada, the UK, USA, etc.

If you have questions, comment below.

I wish you academic success.