Certainly I can do so.
All international students, regardless of which stream under the international student program they are applying through, must demonstrate that they have proof of financial support for their first year of studies. That includes both tuition and living expenses.
In the SDS program, students show that by demonstrating that they paid the first year of tuition with their education institution in Canada and the GIC of $10,000. In Nigeria, we were unable to have a financial institution with a product comparable to a GIC. Given what my colleague Marian Campbell Jarvis said, that this is a key market for us with a significant volume of student applications, we are exploring alternate pathways to improve outcomes for Nigerian students.
The Nigerian student express stream allows for students to demonstrate that they have the full suite of funds for their first-year tuition and living expenses; however, it's not a GIC, and we don't ask them to hold it in a bank. It is simply proof of it that is verified with the local financial institution. It has, in 2021, shown remarkable improvement in acceptance rates for international students out of Nigeria. Nigerian students who applied through this program in 2021 had an acceptance rate of 50%.