Commission seeks to harness potentials of Diasporas for national development

The Chairman of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, Dr. Abike Dabiri -Erewa said she is committed in harnessing the huge potentials of Nigerians Diaspora as a major catalyst for national development.

She stated this in an interview with Voice of Nigeria on the margins of the just concluded 26^th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, in Kigali, Rwanda.

Dr. Dabiri-Erewa noted that Nigeria cannot have a pool of talent all over the world without making the desired impact on the country’s development.

 “We cannot have all this pool of talent all over the world and they cannot impact on Nigeria.”

“We are beginning to see the impact, for instance, a lot of them are beginning to invest in the health care industry, a lot of them coming home to build hospitals to do something back home, a lot of them are investing in agriculture, ICT, food business and education.”

Dr. Dabiri-Erewa speaking on the resilience of Nigerians globally expressed satisfaction with the conduct and exploits of Nigerians living in Rwanda.

“You can see here, even here in Rwanda, we have met quite a lot of them doing great things here and the good thing is that they are also doing things back home.”

“Here in Rwanda am just coming from the factory of one of our people who is making JR Coffee here in Rwanda and exporting it, and he even started by getting the products from Nigeria.”

“There is Jallof Kigali here, it’s owned by a Nigerian and there several others that are employing people here in Rwanda.”

“So it’s all about that resilience, that push by the Nigerian, it is really quite impressive.”

“So that’s the key thing harnessing the resources together.”

In the education sector, Dr.  Dabiri-Erewa said Nigerians have been impressive adding that Nigerians students are among the best in the world.

She said Nigerians in the Diaspora are adding value to community, society or country they reside.

“Even in the education sector, our Nigerian students are some of the best”.

“We have two of them here in Rwanda that have won excellence awards of the Carnegie University, which is the same Carnegie University in America, they came tops, in fact, the valedictorian is a Nigerian.’’

‘’For instance one of those in the education sector is coming home to train some of our students.”

“We have a Nigerian here who is helping them build a cable car so by the time Rwanda gets a capable car; they are in the negotiation stage, a Nigerian will be involved.”

“So we are huge in human capital, and that is why we need to focus on this.”

“The message is simple, Nigerians at home with Nigerians in Diaspora, we can change the narrative of our country.”

“Of course we have one or two not doing great things but one bad apple should not spoil the whole bunch, we have a lot, we should really really be proud of ourselves as Nigerians.”

According to Dr. Dabiri-Erewa diaspora remittances is now over twenty billion dollars.

She said the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has initiated structured programmes for investment to boost the Diaspora remittances.

“We have structured programmes for investments; there should be a structured platform to make it possible for diasporans to invest and that is why we have the Diaspora Investment Trust Fund.”

‘’Even beyond investments, capacity building they are helping with training, doctors are coming with medical missions, they are pooling resources together to build a medical center of excellence.”

“We cannot and never ignore our diasporans.”

Dr. Dabiri-Erewa said the commission is harnessing the Diaspora resources through various programmes which include the Diaspora Investment Trust Fund, the Diaspora Investment Summit and the Diaspora Housing Scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

Ime N