Recession: Nigeria seeks $30bn Diaspora investment funds

Having met some brick walls in sourcing loan facilities from international financial institutions with which to fight its recession, Nigeria has shifted attention to its citizens living abroad in a process aimed at securing an investment programme of about $30bn.

The plan, if it pulls through, will be targeted at having the Nigerians abroad invest through Treasury Bills and other financial instruments, the process of which will be used as back-up funds for anticipated deficit of the 2017 budget and other developments.

It is to this effect that the current trip of the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo to the United States was programmed at having a closer interaction with Nigerians in Diaspora; most of who are believed to have huge investments abroad.

The VP’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande Osinbajo, at the weekend, spoke of the trip, affirming, that the Federal Government was working on a proposal on the establishment of the Diaspora Commission.

But he was silent on whether the funds to be so realised from the commission would be used to support the country’s budget deficits.

He however quoted Osinbajo as having told Nigerians in US, that “Even in the midst of all that the country is going through, there is a growing consensus by all and sundry on the need for good governance, which can only be feasible with stable economy.

Read also: Why Nigeria’s foreign reserves keep shrinking –Adeosun

“This is why the President and I have made a call that we need a new tribe of Nigerians. We do need a new tribe of men and women of all faith, tribes and ethnicities, who are committed to a country run on high values of integrity, hard work, justice and love for the country.”

Osinbajo said the present administration had taken the Diaspora issue seriously, hence the President Buhari’s decision to appoint a former member of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, as a Senior Special Assistant on the Diaspora.

Other reports quote Dabiri-Erewa as saying that there had been a total of $1.2 trillion funds lying idle but belonging to Nigerians living abroad, with US having about 45 per cent, UK, 30 per cent, while the rest of the countries in Europe and Asia share the balance of 15 per cent.

It was further learnt that a plan for CBN to work with the DMO to have a special bond dedicated to patronage by the Nigerians in Diaspora is in the works.
By Emma Eke….

 

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