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
Business
NASS Engages Agric Minister On Food Crisis
The National Assembly through its joint committee on Agriculture Production Services and Rural Development has engaged the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari on an urgent solution to food inflation bedeviling the country.
The committee chaired by Senator Saliu Mustapha (APC Kwara Central), at an interface with the Minister, interrogated him on plans being put in place to arrest high cost of food prices in the country and make it affordable and available to the poor masses.
In his response, the Minister said the Federal Government has commenced distribution of 42,000 metric tonnes of grains to some focal points of state capitals nationwide.
“We have received directive and approval from Mr. President to distribute for immediate impact 42,000 metric tons of assorted grains free of charge to the Nigerian population.
“This was received in mid-February, as we are speaking, we have a record of the distribution being carried out, but I will want to plead with the honorable house and distinguished senators that some of the movements can’t be made public but a lot of states have started receiving their grains.
“We are distributing to state capitals in the first instance as you all are aware of the risk involved in the vandalism of foodstuff so we are working with the office of the national security adviser and other national security agencies.
“Furthermore, 58,500 metric tonnes of milled rice from mega rice millers will also be released into the market for stabilisation”, he said.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the interactive session, Senator Mustapha expressed satisfaction with the steps being taken by the federal government.
He said: “From our interactive session, we are on the other side of the parliament; we are fully in the picture of what is happening, we are convinced that the steps being taken by the federal government are in the right direction.
“All we did again is to further emphasise on the need for certain things to be done on time, I think from this collaborative approach by the grace of God, Nigerians will have a better feel of the government policy on food security”.
Business
Obj Harps On Cheap Credit, Policy Consistency For Food Production
Nigeria’s former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has called on the government to provide cheap credit and ensure policy consistency to enable farmers increase food production in the country.
The former President made the call as food inflation and nutrition security concerns grow in Africa’s most populous country.
Obasanjo’s made the call at the 9th Agrofood & Plastprintpack conference in Lagos recently, where he said farmers in the country were yearning for consistency in policy and single-digit interest loans to drive growth in the sector and attain food security.
“Policy sustainability and predictability is what farmers want. It helps them to plan. Availability of finance is also what farmers want. They cannot survive on the double digital interest rate”, Obasanjo, who is also a farmer, said at the conference.
According to him, food and nutrition security start with availability, then affordability by ensuring that everyone who needs food can get it.
He noted that food was one of the major imperatives in life, adding that “there cannot be food without agriculture and agribusiness”.
Obasanjo further stressed the importance of agriculture in changing the fortunes of the economy, with attendant exponential gains by way of earnings, employment, food security and other spin-offs.
He noted that agriculture must be made attractive to the country’s teeming youth population, saying this would address the rising unemployment, worsening insecurity and youth migration through the Mediterranean.
“We have to make agriculture attractive to the youths. We have to think within and outside the box to make it attractive to the youths so they are willing to get their hands dirty and feet wet”, he advised.
He continued that “Part of the security issue is owing to our inability to get them engaged. The need for agro-food and agribusiness is for food security, employment, wealth creation and income generation, particularly foreign exchange”.
Speaking also, Wouter Plom, the ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, said his country had faced challenges similar to those Nigeria confronts – feeding a growing population with limited resources.
He said as partners with a joint vision, the Netherlands and Nigeria recognise that the agricultural sector was one of the prominent drivers for economic growth.
He noted that the Netherlands has further strengthened its partnership with Nigeria to boost the agriculture sector in three main areas- economic growth, improved diets and youth employment.
The ambassador noted that all the challenges in driving growth through the sector, improving diets and tackling unemployment can be addressed when food production is efficient.
Paul Maerz, Managing Director of Fairtrade Messe, said with more investment in agro-food & plastprintpack solutions, products and technologies, brighter days were ahead for Nigeria’s agriculture.
Business
Abuja Farmers, Others Lose N12bn To Ginger Disease
The Federal Government, has confirmed the outbreak of ginger blight epidemic in four States in Nigeria, saying ginger farmers have lost over N12 billion due to the disease.
The government disclosed this at the inauguration of the National Ginger Blight Epidemic Control Taskforce in Abuja, revealing that the fungal disease had inflicted significant damage on ginger farms in Kaduna, Nassarawa Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory.
The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, said the blight had caused billions of naira in losses, impacting not only the livelihoods of farmers, but also Nigeria’s position as the world’s second-largest ginger producer.
“Our preliminary estimates suggested that affected farmers in southern Kaduna lost over N12bn.
“Furthermore, considering that over 85 per cent of Nigeria’s ginger cultivation occurs in this region, we can safely assume a substantial loss of cultivated land, potentially exceeding 70 per cent of total land”, he stated.
Abdullahi, however, stated that the Federal Government through the National Agricultural Development Fund would launch a N1.6bn recovery package for affected farmers in ginger-producing areas.
He said the ginger blight epidemic served as a stark reminder of the importance of preparedness in safeguarding agricultural resources, adding that by investing in research, extension services and farmer support systems, “we can build a more sustainable future for our agricultural sector”.
On his part, the Chairman of the task force committee, Abubakar Abdullahi, said there was no doubt that the blight on ginger had negatively affected the Gross Domestic Product earnings from this subsector.
“It is of necessity and great urgency that various subcommittees are put in place to forestall these negative effects”, he stated.
Abdullahi assured the minister of the commitment of the team to salvage the situation, as he pleaded with the minister to give the committee the power to co-opt members that would add value to the task force to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively.
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