The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Hon. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe has expressed her displeasure over the insignificant impact of diaspora remittances in the Nigerian economy.
This was made known at the NIDO Americas Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Conference 2020 held virtually, with the theme: “HARNESSING DIASPORA HUMAN CAPITAL FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA”.
Hon. Akande-Sadipe, Oluyole Federal Constituency Representative, revealed that the officially recorded remittances, are much lower than the actual remittances recorded by the World Bank, due to unofficial informal channels, saying these informal channels could add at least 50% to the global figures.
According to her, the World bank estimated that global remittances grew by 10% from $633 billion in 2017 to $689billion in 2018, with developing countries receiving 77% or $528billion of the total inflow. She said, in 2017 Nigeria led the continent in terms of remittances while in 2018 Egypt and Nigeria accounted for the largest inflow into Africa.
Akande-Sadipe said in February there were discrepancies between Central Bank of Nigeria and the World Bank & PWc reports, which provoked the House Committee on Diaspora to initiate an Investigation on Diaspora Remittances, to correct the current narrative on Diaspora remittances. This, she said, resulted in the CBN accepting the initial reporting by the World Bank and PWc.
“Nigerians in Diaspora have been a major force for development in the country through remittances, but there is a need, for a more committed strategy for promotion of trade and investments, innovation, knowledge and technology transfers”, she said.
She further lamented the growing trend in migration from the country, describing it as the loss of human capital.
According to her, United Nations official records state that there are about 1.24 million migrants from Nigeria in the diaspora.
“We need to continuously engage our diasporas in industrialized countries to provide much needed human, social, and financial capital to help with the country’s economic development. For the Nigerian economy to successfully transition from the current state of commodity-dominated production to high value-added production, government must design and implement strategies to harness our grossly underutilized diaspora in developed countries”, she said.
