If he buys it part by part it will most certainly cost that much. If he paid labor on top of that, man, he'd be out $3000-$3500 easy.
$300-$450 JDM SR20DE
$400 RS5F32V tranny
$100 ECU
$100 Engine Harness
$60 mounts
$200 axles
$100 PS hoses
$50 MAF
Now, at conservatively pricing this stuff I'm already at $1400+ and that's assuming the engine includes an A/C pump or that he has one to swap onto the new engine, Alternator and PS pump. There's lots of little things that nickle and dime the price up. He's going to want to put a new clutch in while the tranny is out, so there's another $100-$400 depending on what he goes with. I'm not trying to be a know it all, I just think it's easy to be overly optimistic about what a swap would cost doing it yourself and you can't afford to be optimistic. Like I said, if you're serious about doing this swap, keep your eyes peeled for a wrecked SE-R you can pick up for a few hundred dollars.