By Fatima Saka
Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Solomon Adeola Olamilekan has conceded with Chairman Committee on Diaspora and NGOS, Senator Victor Umeh on status of Nigerians in diaspora commission poorly funded.
The Chairman Committee on Diaspora Senator Victor Umeh stressed that the Nigerians in diaspora are contributing to the country’s development, “you will see that allocating such a large sum of money in one year to them is very non responsive to the needs of that commission.”
He added that, in 2022 alone Nigerians in diaspora made remittances to Nigeria to turn about $24 billion.
Senator Victor Umeh made this assertion during his submission of the 2024 budget proposal before the Senate Committee on Appropriation on Monday at the National Assembly Complex.
He emphasized that the Nigerian diaspora made a lot of inflow into the country’s economy. “And those who generate this money from outside Nigeria have various needs and challenges. And these things come under these three functions of the Nigerians in diaspora commission, wherever they are threatened, beaten or killed.
‘The commission that will be on hand to check and cross check what has gone wrong, and they have no money to do that. So people who contribute $24 billion to Nigeria’s foreign exchange inflow and you don’t have up to $1 billion.”
The Senator gave an instant of the welfare issues that have been ignored. Apart from that, we discovered that Nigerians are doing very well globally.
“There are Nigerians who are holding very high positions in America, in Europe, in Asia, all been in top positions in very huge corporations.
To do anything they do that they remit money to the relations in Nigeria, to be able to cushion the effect of hardship on them, if you aggregate it in one year, $24 billion.
“Some of them we have found in top technological institutions abroad, in America in health care in agriculture, in energy direction, and sunray services, you know, so we should be able to bring them nearer to Nigeria and get them to invest in Nigeria.”
“So that calls for this need to have a diaspora Investment Summit. outside Nigeria, we had one just a month ago in Abuja here but those people who are looking for whether that be Nigerians that are in Top Places globally who can assist the Government of Nigeria and in assistance this country are not in Wellington, the summit’s so very busy people over there.
“If we have diaspora investments from it, by a Nigerian government, in America, in Canada, in the UK or anywhere in Europe, in Malaysia, in China, for example, in India, in South Africa, you’ll be able to bring these people to a closer roundtable chat, they will know the opportunities we have in Nigeria.”
