By Dipo Olowookere
The House of Representatives has mandated its committees on Diaspora, Banking and Currency, National Planning and Economic Development to investigate the actual amount of remittances made into the country in the last three years by Nigerians living abroad.
At the plenary on Tuesday presided over by Speaker of the House, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, the lower chamber of the National Assembly also directed the committees to collaborate with Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Money Transfer Operators and other stakeholders for a comprehensive report, which should be submitted within four weeks for further legislative action.
This directive followed a point raised by a lawmaker, Ms Tolulope Akande-Sadipe, who called attention of the green part of the parliament on the need to ascertain remittances made by Nigerians in diaspora and the impact on the nation’s economy.
Members of the parliament emphasised that remittances by Nigerians represent household incomes and investments from foreign economies arising mainly from the temporary or permanent movement of people to those economies and includes cash and non-cash items that flow through formal channels such as electronic wire, or through informal channels, such as money or goods carried across borders.
During the debate, it was noted that remittances inflows into the country could rise to $25.5 billion, $29.8 billion and $34.9 billion in 2019, 2021 and 2023 respectively.
It was further argued that over a 15-year period, total remittances flow to Nigeria would grow by almost double in size from $18.4 billion in 2009 to $34.9 billion in 2023.
The lawmakers, concerned that since many transactions are unrecorded or take place through informal channels, stressed that the actual amount of remittance flows into the country was arguably higher; as in 2018, diaspora remittances to Nigeria was equal to $25 billion, representing 6.1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which also represented 14 percent year-on-year growth from the $22 billion receipts in 2017.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in report, said that remittances from Nigerians in the diaspora rose from $3.24 billion in 2013 to approximately $25.08 billion in 2018, a rise of 126 percent in 6 years amounting to an estimated $96.5 billion sent to the country.
The World Bank estimated that global remittances grew by 10 percent from $633 billion in 2017 to $689 billion in 2018, with developing countries receiving 77 percent or $528 billion of the total inflows.
In 2018, Egypt and Nigeria accounted for the largest inflows of remittances into Africa, with the latter leading in the continent in terms of remittance receipts in 2017.
According to the United Nations official records, there are 1.24 million migrants from Nigerians in the diaspora and the World Bank Report also showed that the Indian diaspora sent a whopping $79 billion back home in 2018, making the country the world’s top recipient of remittances and at the growth rate of 14 percent in inward remittances.
India has registered significant growth in the flow of remittances over the last 3 years, from $62.7 billion in 2016 to $65.3 billion in 2017, remittances reached the $79 billion mark by 2018.
Nigeria accounts for over a third of migrant remittances flows to Sub-Saharan Africa estimated to have amounted to $23.63 billion in 2018, representing 6.1 percent of the country’s GDP, which translated to 83 percent of the federal government’s budget in 2018 and 11 times the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows in the country within the period and was 7 times larger than the $3.4 billion received in 2017 as foreign aid.
Adedapo Adesanya