Flywire provides an informative session diving into the Nigerian market, in-country restrictions and how this may impact students paying their international tuition fees. The speakers also took the audience through the Flywire payment journey to illustrate how we can support both students and institutions throughout this process.
Video transcript
ALYSHA AYRES (EDUCATION RELATIONSHIP MANAGER, FLYWIRE)
Good morning everyone, thank you for joining. We'll kick off shortly — I just want to give everyone a few more moments to dial in.
Good morning everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your morning to join us today for our Nigeria Market Insight and Payment Journey webinar. Some of you may recognize me — I'm Alysha, one of the Education Relationship Managers here at Flywire.
Before I hop straight into today's session, just a couple of quick housekeeping notes. We've allowed some time at the end of today for a Q&A session. Feel free to submit as many questions as you like as we go through the presentation — you should see a Q&A button at the bottom of your screen. Aline and I will do our very best to address as many questions as we can on the call. If there are any we don't have time for, we'll follow up with you individually after the session.
In terms of today's agenda, there are two key parts. For the first half, I'll hand over to my colleague Aline, one of our Senior Payments Managers at Flywire, who will walk us through an in-depth Nigeria market insight — helping you understand the in-country challenges and restrictions your students and payers face when getting funds out of Nigeria. For the second half, I'll walk you through a live Flywire payment journey, showing how Flywire supports payers in those regions. Without further ado, over to you, Aline.
NIGERIA MARKET INSIGHT
ALINE CHANG (PAYMENTS MANAGER, FLYWIRE)
Thank you. Hello everyone — as Alysha said, my name is Aline Chang. I'm the Payments Manager at Flywire for the India region, and I've been working with the company for the last three years managing our payments network in the APAC region.
Today, our goal is to walk you through our understanding of the complexity faced by people in the Nigerian market whenever they want to move funds abroad.
Foreign currency access in Nigeria
The first thing to understand when talking about accessing foreign currency in Nigeria is that it's a very controlled activity. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) inserts itself heavily into that process. One of Nigeria's biggest sources of foreign currency is the export of raw materials, and with recent commercial and economic shifts globally, that process is becoming more challenging. The result is a higher internal demand for foreign currency than what the local supply chain can offer.
With that in mind, the CBN has implemented a concept of discounted rates, developed for specific purposes. There are three commonly used ones:
Form Q — Available for SMEs in Nigeria making payments to suppliers and importing services. There's an allotment of $20,000 or equivalent per quarter for that purpose.
Form A — This is the one we'll focus on today. It's known as the "invisible rate" and is available for education fees, PTA, housing, and other medical bills payable abroad.
Form M — Known as the "INU window" or "visible transactions." This is used when purchasing equipment or raw materials, and is generally used to support industrial development in the country.
Form A in detail
Because Form A is most commonly used by students and their families when paying tuition and education-related costs, we'll dive deeper into this one today.
Form A rates are published directly by the CBN and adjusted periodically — but they can remain the same for months at a time. They are accessed through local banks in Nigeria. Each bank receives a bi-weekly allotment of funds from the CBN to assign to payer needs. It's not uncommon for a payer to go to their bank and be told there's no allotment available, or to be capped per payer, or directed to a different currency than they requested. USD tends to be depleted quickly; GBP and EUR are generally more accessible through banks.
From the payer's perspective, Form A allows an allotment of up to $15,000 (or equivalent in other currencies) per semester, which adds up to $30,000 per year. In practice, if a payer has an education invoice larger than $15,000 to pay at once, they'll need to source the remaining balance through other means — which we'll cover shortly.
The Form A application process
Since December last year, this process can be completed online. The payer accesses the government page hosting the Form A, fills it out — providing their BVN (a standard document in Nigeria), the school invoice, and the relevant account information — and then completes a second form called the Authorization to Debit form. Both are available in the same space and the transition between the two is smooth.
Once submitted, the payer's bank processes the application, debits the payer's account in local currency at the applicable rate, and credits Flywire's account abroad in the foreign currency. Flywire then reconciles and settles the funds to the school shortly after.
When Form A allotment runs out: parallel rates
When a payer's Form A allotment is exhausted and they still have a balance to pay, they'll need to source funds using the parallel rate available in the country. Parallel rates fluctuate with market demand — they're generally 20–30% above the prevailing CBN discounted rates. However, there are no limitations on how much foreign currency an individual can obtain at the parallel rate, and no additional paperwork is required.
Parallel rates are available through BDCs (Bureau de Change / foreign currency bureaus) and through payment service providers (PSPs).
Flywire's payment options in Nigeria
Understanding those scenarios allows us to explain Flywire's payment options within Nigeria. Flywire's naira payment options are based on the parallel rate, which allows for a faster process of converting and remitting funds internationally. These rates are generally 25–30% above CBN rates.
We strongly advise payers that the naira payment option is best suited for flows that go beyond their Form A allotment. Payers who are within their Form A allotment for education-related costs should use Flywire's GBP, EUR, or USD payment options. This allows them to leverage the Form A discounted rate from the CBN while the school still receives the full benefits of the Flywire platform — including reconciliation and settlement.
If and when a student exhausts their allotment, the naira offering at the parallel rate is available as a complementary option. I'll now hand back to Alysha to walk you through how all of this works within the Flywire payment experience.
FLYWIRE PAYMENT JOURNEY WALKTHROUGH
ALYSHA (EDUCATION RELATIONSHIP MANAGER, FLYWIRE)
Thank you so much, AlinE. I'm sure I speak for everyone in saying that gives us a much better understanding of the challenges students and payers face in Nigeria. Now I'll walk you through how Flywire supports with those challenges, using a live payment example from Nigeria.
Step 1 — Payment information
The screenshots I'm using show an exact replica of the portal your students would go through — in this case, the University of Portsmouth's portal. The first thing I want to highlight is the Help function, visible throughout every single page of the payment process. This is a 24/7 chat function connecting directly to our payer support team.
There are six steps in this payment process. The first page is the Payment Information page, where the student selects where they're paying from — Nigeria, in this example — and enters the amount they want the institution to receive. Itemizations can also be built into the portal at the institution's request (e.g. tuition fees, accommodation deposit, English language course). Once completed, they click Next.
Step 2 — Payment method
This screen offers several options. For Nigerian naira payments, there are two local currency options: bank transfer and debit/credit card. These are based on the parallel rates Aline described.
We also offer international bank transfer options in GBP, EUR, and USD — designed to work in conjunction with the Form A process and the CBN's education discounted rates. For example, if a student has been able to access the central bank rate and just needs to top up a small remaining balance, the naira options are available. But for the majority of their payment, we recommend the GBP, EUR, or USD options, which allow them to take their Flywire reference down to their bank and instruct an international wire transfer in foreign currency, using the preferential CBN rate for the conversion from naira.
The key benefit of using the Flywire route over going directly to their bank for an international wire is full payment visibility at every stage — from when funds reach Flywire, through processing, to release to the institution. If a student initiates a wire directly from their bank, they lose visibility the moment funds leave the account. Flywire also facilitates refunds back to source, which is particularly valuable given the high visa refusal rates in Nigeria — institutions avoid the complexity of manually transferring funds back to Nigeria.
Step 3 — Payer information
The payer's details are captured at this stage for AML and due diligence checks. Students don't need a Flywire account to use the portal, but they can create one to track payments and access support at any point. Terms and conditions are also accessible and downloadable here.
Step 4 — Student/institution information
This page collects the information your institution has asked Flywire to capture for reconciliation purposes — for University of Portsmouth, that's first and last name, student ID, date of birth, and student email. This is fully customizable. Validation prompts and ID format hints can also be built in to reduce errors.
Step 5 — Review and confirm
A summary screen showing the amount being sent in local currency, the amount the institution will receive, the payment method, and all payer and student information. Any changes can be made by clicking back to the relevant screen. When everything is confirmed, the student clicks Pay.
Step 6 — Making the payment
For local naira bank transfer: the student is shown the naira amount to send, along with a unique payment ID that should be referenced on the bank transfer. This allows Flywire's systems to automatically match incoming funds to the correct outstanding payment, speeding up processing and release to the institution. An "initiate payment by" date is also shown — Flywire locks in the exchange rate for a limited window. If the student misses this date, the team follows up and they simply restart the process; no funds are lost.
For local naira card payment: the same functionality applies, with a card details pop-up for the student to complete the payment directly.
For GBP/EUR/USD international bank transfer (Form A route): the student is shown the settlement amount in the foreign currency — for a £10,000 invoice, this would be £10,018, with the £18 representing Flywire's service fee for processing a foreign currency transfer. The student is provided with all the bank transfer instructions they need to take to their local Nigerian bank, which handles the naira-to-foreign-currency conversion at the CBN preferential rate and remits to Flywire's account. Instructions are downloadable for ease.
Q&A
ALYSHA
We've had a number of questions submitted in advance and through the live chat. I'll address a few now and Aline and I will follow up with everyone individually on any we don't reach today.
The first question is around currency restrictions and Form A implications — Aline, I'll hand that back to you.
ALINE
Happy to recap. There are two sides to the Form A restrictions. The first is bank-level: each bank in Nigeria receives a bi-weekly allotment from the CBN to distribute to payers, so availability can vary by bank and timing. The second is payer-level: each student has access to up to $15,000 (or equivalent) per semester under Form A.
A question that came through the live chat asked whether a student invoiced more than twice per year — say three or four times — would get additional allotment access. The answer is no. The $15,000 allotment is per semester, not per invoice. If a school invoices three times per year at, say, £6,000–7,000 each, the student can still use their allotment across those invoices — it doesn't matter how many invoices there are, just that the total stays within the semester allotment.
On the payment flow itself: a student does not need to obtain foreign currency and hold it themselves. The process is that the student books a payment in Flywire, selecting the foreign currency they want to pay in. They then fill out the Form A online, entering that currency amount. Once approved, their Nigerian bank debits their naira account and credits Flywire's account in the foreign currency selected. The FX conversion is handled entirely by the bank in Nigeria — the student pays in naira, and Flywire receives in the chosen foreign currency.
ALYSHA
Thank you, Aline. A couple more questions to address:
How do students access the 24/7 chat function? Via the Help icon that appears on every page throughout the Flywire payment journey. We also have dedicated payer support teams who handle both in-payment and post-payment queries — please reach out to your account manager for the relevant contact details so you can direct student queries directly to us.
On the Flywire exchange rate appearing high for Nigerian students, and what to advise if students want to go directly to their bank: Aline, would you like to close on this one?
ALINE
Of course. The key message to take away is that for education-related payments, students have two main options.
The first is using the CBN discounted rate via Form A — the student books a payment in Flywire in a foreign currency (GBP, EUR, or USD), completes the Form A application, and their bank converts from naira and settles to Flywire in that foreign currency. If a bank declines due to a lack of allotment in the chosen currency, the student can simply book a new payment in a different currency and submit a new Form A — there's no penalty for multiple attempts.
The second option, for any balance beyond the Form A allotment, is Flywire's naira payment option using the parallel rate. This is sourced through local partners, updated in real time each time a student logs in, and available via card or local bank transfer to a Flywire-provided account. Both options are presented side by side within the Flywire portal, within the same payment journey.
The goal is that schools benefit from everything Flywire provides — reconciliation, settlement visibility, compliance — while students have the flexibility to use whatever rate and method their circumstances allow.
ALYSHA
Thank you so much, Aline — and thank you to everyone who joined today and submitted questions. We'll follow up individually with any questions we didn't get to. A recording of this session will be shared with all attendees, so please feel free to revisit or share it internally.
As a relationship management team, we're here to support you — whether that's individual follow-up sessions on today's content or anything else we can help with. Thank you all very much, and have a fantastic day.