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A recent report highlights risks of investment of funds into the UK education sector by African elites, including “politically exposed persons”, some of whom have been convicted of corruption or whose assets have been seized by the UK. According to the report, the gap between what west African PEPs pay for a UK education and what they can legitimately afford is a significant red flag. Relatively lax anti-money laundering rules in the British education sector mean that school administrators and admissions staff are potentially complicit in illegal flows of money.

School officials in the city of Athens and Limestone County have conspired to obtain more public funding by claiming to enrol full-time private students in the system's virtual schools. The two school districts were improperly paid around $7 million in state education funding for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. By November 2017, more than 500 private school students were fraudulently enrolled in Athens Renaissance schools and over 50 students in Conecuh County.

The demand for higher education in Nigeria is significant and the 79 private and 91 federal and state universities cannot meet the need. Nevertheless, the Nigerian government will no longer allow illegal satellite campuses and affiliations with foreign unaccredited universities. This follows the release by the National Universities Commission in February of a list of about 60 illegal universities which were closed because they failed to meet the minimum education standards.

Two Kwekwe High School teachers have been suspended after they allegedly asked parents for money to secure Form One places for their children. The matter only became public on the school's opening day, when the school authorities discovered that there was an extra class of 30 students, prompting the headmaster to launch an investigation.

Reports show that criminals exploit cash payments made by West African students to pay tuition and other service fees at United Kingdom universities. Private universities and cross-border foreign campuses in Africa are used as an investment and to integrate the proceeds of crime into the legitimate economy. When more than the tuition fee is paid, they request the university to refund the overpayment to a third party’s account such as the bank account of a drug supplier or a bribed official.