Nigeria

The naira float rewrote every fee conversation. In June 2023 the central bank floated the currency, dropping the official rate from about ₦475 to ₦750 per dollar overnight — a 37 per cent fall. The rate was about ₦1,319 per dollar on 2 September 2026. Schools with USD-denominated costs (expatriate teachers, IB and exam fees, imported everything) have passed that through in naira terms; fees quoted in dollars have been steadier but the conversion rate is a moving target. ↗ ↗

The market splits sharply. A 2026 tracker of 64 Lagos schools describes roughly 1,200 private schools in the city across five tiers: Tier 1 (Charterhouse, AISL) at ₦16.5M-63M a year; Tier 2 premium British/IB at ₦4M-10M; and a vast Tier 3-5 below that. Tuition typically covers only 65-75 per cent of the real all-in cost — the rest is registration, development levies, transport, uniforms, lunches and trips. Tracker data, graded low-confidence; the shape is corroborated by press surveys. ↗

There are no ratings — anywhere. Nigeria publishes no school-inspection results. The substitutes: UK accreditation (IAPS, COBIS), US State Department Office of Overseas Schools links, IB authorisation, and press surveys with first-party quotes. Our Lagos guide works through them school by school.

Schools are approved by states, not Abuja. In Lagos, private schools register with the State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education and obtain approval through the Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA) — online registration, site visits, inspection and documentation, now run quarterly with a target of at least 100 approvals per quarter. Other states run their own equivalents. ↗ ↗

The floor is lower than families assume. A 2011 census found only 26 per cent of Lagos State private schools were officially approved and registered; a 2018 study in one Lagos LGA found 10 per cent. The premium international schools sit far above this floor — but the statistic explains why checking a school’s approval letter is a real due-diligence step in Nigeria, not a formality. ↗

Foreign curricula carry a Nigerian overlay. Lagos State private schools may teach a foreign curriculum provided they adopt certain compulsory Nigerian subjects and register students for national examinations (WASSCE/JSCE). For expat families this rarely binds; for mixed and Nigerian families planning local university options, it matters — ask how the school handles the dual track. ↗

• AISL (Lagos): ₦15,775,898-26,880,485 for 2024/25 (BusinessDay, June 2025, first-party quotes); a 2026 tracker lists ₦28M-63M for 2026/27. The school does not publish its schedule — both figures are presented with dates, and the near-doubling is unconfirmed against a first-party document. ↗
• Charterhouse Lagos: founding fees of ₦16.1M (Years 1-2) to ₦24.5M (Year 9), weekly boarding ₦6M, full boarding ₦7M — plus a one-time non-refundable application fee of ₦2 million, before tuition, at the school billed as West Africa’s first British independent school. 2026/27 tracker: ₦16.5M-31.5M. ↗
• British International School Lagos: tracker fees of ₦4.5M-9.1M, with reporting that fees are payable in US dollars. Grange School (Ikeja GRA): ₦3.6M-5.5M — one of only three IAPS-accredited schools in Nigeria, a genuine quality signal in a ratings-free market. ↗

AISL itself shows what the top tier buys: founded 1964, a six-acre Victoria Island campus, the IB Diploma, a reported 7:1 student-teacher ratio and 83.1 per cent expatriate teachers in its 2024/25 annual report, and a non-profit board that includes oil-company and US Consulate representatives. ↗

The American International School of Abuja anchors the capital. AISA teaches the US common core to an AP Capstone diploma — one of only two AP Capstone schools in Africa — and is MSA-accredited. Its 2024-25 tuition per the US State Department fact sheet: USD 8,888 (PreK), USD 17,844 (elementary), USD 19,172 (middle) and USD 21,390 (high school), plus a USD 500 application fee. That is December 2024 data; the school does not publish a full schedule, so quote directly for 2026-27. ↗

The British track prices in naira, lower than Lagos. A 2026 local registry guide lists British International School Maitama at ₦2.0M-4.0M per term, Lead British International School at ₦1.5M-3.0M, and the academically elite Loyola Jesuit College at ₦1.5M-2.5M per term (secondary source, low confidence — confirm by quote). Even tripling term figures, Abuja’s premium tier lands well below Lagos’s Tier 1 — one reason embassy families push back on Lagos postings. ↗

Every figure above traces to our research dossier. Primary sources: BusinessDay’s June 2025 school survey (first-party quotes), the Lagos OEQA, UNESCO’s Education Profiles, ECA International on the naira float, and the US State Department fact-sheet figures for AISA. Lagos.Cool tracker data is graded low confidence throughout and is always presented with its year.

Fees and policies expire. This page was researched on 2 September 2026 and is re-verified each academic year — see our research standard, browse the school directory as profiles open, and use corrections if you spot something stale.