By: Mercy Peter
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Thursday July 25 revaled that Nigeria has raked in about $100 billion from diaspora remittances in the last five years.
This, is as she also revealed that the efforts towards the amendment of the constitution to allow for diaspora voting has commenced with the introduction of a bill to that effect.
Dabiri-Erewa who spoke at the opening of the 2024 National Diaspora Day Celebrations said the contribution of the Diaspora community to national development cannot be over-emphasized.
No fewer than 1,000 participants are expected at the 2-day 2024 diaspora day celebrations.
She said: “Let me also state that the contributions of the Diaspora community to national development cannot be over-emphasized.
“According to the World Bank statistics recently, Nigerian Diaspora has remitted over 99 billion US dollars into the system in the last five years. This is huge and highly commendable.
Dabiri-Erewa stressed that Diaspora is one area that needed to pay more attention to.
She said, “So, this is a sector that we need to pay more attention we haven’t pay attention to it We need to do a lot more. So we have to tap into the enormous resources we have with the diaspora.
“We are still scratching the surface. And that’s what I will say.”
On the much expected diaspora voting Bill, she said the Bill which is been sponsored by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr. Tajudeen Abbas has already scaled the first reading.
She said it is a huge plus for the administration.
She said: “It is worthy of note that the long awaited Diaspora Voting, which has been a consistent topic of discussion among the Diaspora community, has now passed the first reading in the Parliament, which is a huge plus for this administration.
“The Bill was sponsored by no other persons than Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Hon. Sadiq Ango Abdulahi from Kano state. ”
The National Diaspora Day Celebrations prescribed by the National Diaspora Policy is a day set aside to recognize, acknowledge and celebrate the over 20 million Nigerians in the Diaspora (both the modern and historic Diaspora) who are contributing immensely to national development.
