By Ebi Kesiena
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) has expressed willingness to partner with the African Institute for Remittances (AIR) towards improving remittances in Africa.
This was the highlight of the courtesy visit to NiDCOM, led by Amadou Cisse, the Executive Director, African Institute for Remittances in Abuja on Monday.
Cisse made it known that Nigeria, the largest recipient of remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a well structured Diaspora Engagement Policy, is their major country of focus alongside Egypt.
“Dealing with Nigeria equals to addressing at least 75 per cent of the issues Africa face with remittances. This will impact the whole continent, ” He added.
According to him, the Institute has three main focus which are to regulate remittances and ensure its compliance with international regulations, to gather accurate data for tracking remittances and to create polices to develop remittances.
Cisse added that NIDCOM being a key player in Diaspora Affairs not only in Nigeria but Africa will be a key stakeholder in driving the aims and objectives of the Institute.
Receiving the delegation on behalf of Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Secretary to Commission, Dr. Sule Yakubu Bassi, assured the delegation of the Commission’s commitment to remittances development.
“The issue of remittance development has been on the front burner for NiDCOM. Studies have shown that 70 per cent of Nigeria Diaspora Remittances goes into consumption while only 30 per cent goes into investment.”
“Our goal is to see more percentage going into investments so the Diaspora can have more dividends to allocate to social consumption.” He explained.
To achieve that, the Commission has continued to partner with relevant stakeholders, consistently engaged the Diaspora and execute programmes tailored towards improving remittances.
The African Institute for Remittances is a technical arm of the African Union designed to exclusively deal with issues of Remittances.
