Nigerians to pay N107,500 for IELTS as British Council hikes fee

Nigerians will now pay N107,500 for the Academic International English Language Testing System Examinations (IELTS).

Presently, the fee is between N80,000 and N90,000, but Nigerians will from September 2023 pay the new amount, according to the British Council, organisers of the assessment test for migrants going to work or study in the UK and Canada.

“Dear valued test taker,” the Council said in a terse statement, “We would like to inform you that effective 01 September 2023, there will be a price increase for IELTS tests offered by the British Council.

“The new prices will be N107,500 for IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training, N116,000 for UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), and N104,000 for Life Skills. The new prices are necessary to sustain the high quality of standards for your testing experience. Thank you for choosing the British Council.”

The development might be a big deal for the vast majority of Nigerians who see the UK as their preferred work or study destination.

The United Kingdom requires citizens of any country willing to relocate to the UK for work or study opportunities to take the IELTS.

The UK remains one of the choicest destinations for Nigerians seeking better learning opportunities and way of life in foreign countries, with many opting for the education visa route and also taking dependents along to the UK.

In the 2020-21 academic year, 21,305 Nigerian students were enrolled in UK universities. This represents an almost 64 per cent increase from the 2019-20 figure.

As of September 2021, only two other countries, China and India, were sending more students to the UK than Nigeria. Enrolments from Nigeria spiked from 12,820 in 2016-17 to 21,305 in 2020-21 to 44,195 in 2021-22.

Among all nationalities, Nigerians represented the largest relative increase in sponsored study visa grants, which reached a record high of 65,929, a nearly 700 per cent increase from 2019 and a 222.8 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2021.

Data from the Home Office of the UK in May also revealed that 66,796 dependent visas were issued to families of Nigerian students who obtained study visas from March 2022 to March 2023.