Business
Between FG And Diaspora Investors
Olusegun Aganga is Nigeria’s trade and investments minister. An accomplished investment banker and erstwhile holder of the nation’s finance portfolio. He joined the ministerial train not quite long ago after relinquishing his managing directorship of the prestigious investment firm of Goldman Sachs in Europe.
As part of his new charge, Aganga has the unenviable task of exploring fresh grounds for more robust trade relations with the outside world. And this he has to undertake alongside developing alternative strategies on how best to attract more investments to help rouse the nation’s near prostrate economy.
The minister has already hit the road, running. At a recent parley with a cross section of his Diaspora compatriots, Aganga was reported to have hinted on the Federal Government’s plan to initiate a drive for the mobilisation of at least 10 per cent of the informal remittances made annually by Nigerians living abroad.
According to him, the government intends to float a special financial instrument which will be issued for sale to such Nigerians. Also in the scheme is the planned establishment of a mechanism to advise and properly guide those who are willing to invest but who may have lost touch with the prevailing investment trend in the country.
This new drive is apparently based on the popular postulation that Nigerians living abroad repatriate billions of dollars annually. Some analysts have even placed the amount at over $20 billion while suggesting that the bulk of such remittances end up in the hands of family members back home who use them for feeding allowances, funerals, payment of school fees and medical bills, and also for the construction of exquisite country homes on behalf of their overseas benefactors.
But this multi-billion dollar assumption may be flawed if a recent revelation by Fola Kehinde, executive chairman of the African and Caribbean Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise (ACCCE) in the United Kingdom, is anything to take away.
Kehinde was at the head of a trade delegation which visited Port Harcourt, recently. And while speaking during a luncheon jointly organised by his chamber and the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), he was reported to have said that Diaspora Nigerians repatriate about $60 million (N9 billion) annually.
It is already obvious that Kehinde’s figure is a far cry from the $2 billion (about N300 billion) which the nation is targeting from its surmised yearly diaspora remittances.
Even as comparatively meager and ludicrous as Kehinde’s figure appears, it will be rather too hasty to dismiss it with a mere wave of the hand until an authentic official figure is made available. Unfortunately, there is hardly any such record anywhere because Nigeria had never reckoned with the economic potentials of her Diaspora citizens until now.
Apart from those who became foreign citizens by birth and, perhaps, students who won government scholarships to attend foreign schools and who chose to stay back on completion of their studies, the Nigerian Diaspora comprises mainly of emigrants whose movements where based on economic considerations. They are mostly people who fled the country during the infamous brain drain of the 1980s when the then military governments slammed an enduring embargo on employment as part of the harsh austerity measures of that era.
In those years, anybody who got disgusted with the system and sought to travel out of the country in search of better opportunities was seen as being lily-livered. Such was readily branded an Andrew and caricatured to no end. State-sponsored newspaper cartoons, radio and television jingles were massively deployed in this exercise. Yet the migrants remained undeterred. The lure of the thriving economies of Europe, Asia and the Americas was too tempting to resist. University teachers and other professionals left in their droves. Lesser folks who couldn’t afford an escape via the normal exits, trekked through the treacherous Sahara Desert.
Like their counterparts from other parts of the developing world, most of these migrant Nigerians have, over the years, laboured honourably to achieve successes in their various countries of domicile; so much so that their once scornful home-nation is now more inclined to show greater interest in their affairs and to also seek ways of involving them in national development.
It is apparently in realisation of this new resource base that the House of Representatives Committee on the Diaspora, working with Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), is sponsoring a bill for the establishment of a commission for Nigerians living abroad.
Spearheaded by the committee’s chairman, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the bill seeks to recommend the involvement of such Nigerians in policy formulation and execution with a view to drawing from their reservoir of human, capital and material resources for the overall development of the country.
Countries like Mexico, Chile, Poland, Philippines, China and even our sister West African nation of Sierra Leone each has a long-established Diaspora institution that has been very vibrant in overseeing the welfare of its migrant population. And now that it has become fashionable for nations to facilitate the integration of their Diaspora citizens in the development of the homeland, the above-mentioned countries stand on a better moral ground to engage in such endeavour.
Sierra Leone’s approach is particularly instructive here. According to a source, “Sierra Leone’s Office of the Diaspora is directly under the Office of the President. It encourages the return of professionals and other experts from the Diaspora in order to fill critical human resources gaps within the country’s government. Specifically, the office provides a list of jobs in government departments, a list of educational institutions and professional associations in Sierra Leone, contact details of government officials, and information on dual citizenship and other acts.”
Again, Nigeria’s policy makers should avoid the delusion of thinking that patriotism alone is sufficient to guarantee a steady inflow of Diaspora investments. Of course, let it not be lost on anyone that the Diaspora comprises Nigerians with dual citizenship which invariably translates to double allegiance. Therefore, to assume that these Nigerians will, just for mere love of country, sell off their stakes in some blue chip and gilt-edged securities at the world’s most prestigious stock markets and have the proceeds re-invested in the stocks of a local African bourse, is to believe the absurd.
It will surely take more than guaranteed ministerial slots, security reassurances and sustained executive appeals to convince canny Diaspora investors that it is now safe to plough their hard-earned savings into the funding of development projects back home. Certainly not while they still read about high-level bribery and corruption scandals, wanton waste of public resources, bad roads and general decay of transport infrastructure, bureaucratic bottlenecks, unreliable electricity supply, insecurity of lives and property, multiple taxation, bank failures and frequent changes in government policies.
Like Dabiri- Erewa advocates, Nigeria should as well seek the political integration of her Diaspora citizens by establishing overseas voting centres to enable them participate in the nation’s democratic process. It will be utterly ridiculous to know that these foreign-based Nigerians vote in the general elections of their host countries whereas they hardly have a say in the election of the very politicians who will oversee the management of the proposed Diaspora Funds Pool.
Also, and as has already been done in a few states (including Rivers), the Federal Government should always lend the economy to periodic assessment by one or more of the American and world-renowned independent credit rating firms of Fitch, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Duff & Phelps. That way, Diaspora Nigerians and, indeed, the rest of the investing world will be better positioned to make informed judgments.
Ibelema Jumbo
“Payment of tuition fees for undergraduate/postgraduate studies shall be subject to a maximum limit of $25,000.00 per semester,” the Manual states.
The expansion of international card limits also reflects growing confidence among lenders that foreign exchange liquidity has improved enough to support retail dollar transactions.
Speaking recently at the BusinessDay 14th Annual CEO Forum in Lagos, CBN Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the CBN said buying and selling activities now increasingly determine outcomes in the foreign exchange market, unlike in the past when market participants relied heavily on routine Central Bank interventions.
According to Cardoso, Nigeria’s net foreign exchange reserves have risen from just over $3 billion at the start of the reform programme to more than $40 billion, while gross reserves have climbed to about $52 billion, providing stronger confidence for investors and enabling the Central Bank to reserve interventions for periods of market stress rather than day-to-day liquidity management.
The restoration and expansion of international naira card spending limits are increasingly being seen as one of the clearest signs that the benefits of the CBN’s foreign exchange reforms are beginning to reach households, students and businesses making legitimate cross-border payments.
The Secretary-General and Chief Executive Officer, WEC, Dr Angela Wilkinson, disclosed this in a statement, last Thursday.
“Nigeria’s participation comes at a pivotal time as the country seeks to expand energy access, strengthen energy security, accelerate gas development and mobilise the capital required for industrialisation and sustainable economic growth.
“WEC Nigeria will convene leaders from across the energy ecosystem, apply the WEC’s globally recognised Energy Trilemma framework to Nigeria’s unique context, and promote evidence-based dialogue, practical collaboration and informed policymaking.
“It will also ensure that Nigerian and broader African perspectives contribute meaningfully to global energy conversations,” she said.
Wilkinson expressed confidence that Nigeria would play a significant leadership role at the World Energy Congress scheduled for Riyadh in April 2027 and beyond.
The statement also quoted the Chairman of WEC Nigeria, Isa, as describing the country’s participation as an opportunity to deepen national and African leadership within the global energy community through practical solutions tailored to regional development priorities.
He said the platform would promote collaboration across sectors and attract sustainable investments into Nigeria’s energy sector.
The Chief Executive Officer of WEC Nigeria, Wunti, was quoted in the statement as saying that the council would connect leadership, evidence and investment to build a secure, affordable and sustainable energy system.
“This system will be capable of driving economic growth and shared prosperity.”
According to him, the platform will also connect Nigerian institutions and businesses with international knowledge, technology, partnerships and investment opportunities through the World Energy Council’s global network.
Recall that WEC, founded in 1923, is the world’s oldest independent and impartial community of energy leaders and practitioners, advancing informed, collaborative and practical action across the global energy system.
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