By Michael Agbaji
The chairman of senate committee on Diaspora and Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs), Senator Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra Central) has promised to Nigeria Diaspora Commission through legislative backing in achieving it goals.
Sen. Umeh stated this on Tuesday during interactive session with management of Nigeria Diaspora Commission led by chairman, Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
According him,Diaspora remittances in the last one year was put at $22billion.
He said,the amount is not small in flow, saying those remittances contributed to aggregate amount of dollars available to Nigeria economy.
He further said, these $22bn did not come in and we are looking for dollars. Dollar would have gone very much higher than the present rate against the naira”.
He emphasised that this in-flow of $22bn is a major boost to the foreign exchange earnings to the country “and what we need to do is to encourage them”
He encourage Nigerians living abroad to be law abiding, let them observe the protocol and laws of these host countries so that they will be free from imprisonment and harassment.
“There is dignity in labour you can work and earn a good living. So we as a committee are very much interested in Nigerians doing legitimate businesses in various organizations and corporations across the globe so that we can harness their potentials and then bring them to government of Nigeria. So that we benefit from the positions they occupy in various sectors in civilised countries. And this commission is convinced that it has a major role to play in advancing the cause of Nigerians. Because the Nigerians outside are so many in number and they are very much exposed.
“They know what is been done in civilised countries where they live, they can bring such culture to Nigeria and more importantly bring their business partners to come and do business in Nigeria. That is the way we can help and grow our economy too. So we want to go in search of these people wherever they are” Umeh added.
