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By Omodele Adigun
Nigeria’s hope of getting an average of over $100 million Diaspora inflow per week from January 2022 may have hit the rock as total direct remittances for that year (2022) was pegged at $2.16 billion, as against $4.8 billion expected, while the country received a total of $952 million (instead of $ 2.4 billion ) as direct remittances from Nigerians abroad between January and June this year(2023).In 2021, the figure stood at $2.43billion .
Cumulatively, a total of $5.542billion accrued to the nation in close to three years, International payment” data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.
Last year, while launching the now rested RT200 FX Programme’ to boost foreign exchange (forex) supply in the country through the non-oil sector in the next three to five years, Mr Godwin Emefiele, the suspended CBN governor, had explained that policies and measures introduced would boost Diaspora inflow and remittances from an average of $6 million per week in December 2020 to an average of over $100 million per week by January 2022.
Emefiele must have relied on the strength and population of Nigerians in the Diaspora, which keep on increasing in droves, before giving such assurance. Nigerians were reported to have spent $1.38 billion on foreign education between January and September 2022, resulting in a current account deficit of over $1 billion. For instance, US non-migrant visas to Nigerians surged by 215 per cent in 2022 alone.
A total of 97,369 Nigerians received non-immigrant visas from the United States in 2022, a 215 per cent increase compared to 30,878 issued in the previous year, according to data from the US Department of State
The increase followed the rising cases of migration by Nigerians to other countries, especially through study visas. Nigerians seeking to travel abroad have adopted the study route as a means to obtain visas and live in other countries. For instance, the number of Nigerians moving to Canada was recently reported to have surged to the highest in nine years for the first quarter of this year.
Data from the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) show that the country recorded 5, 755 Permanent Residents (PRs) from Nigeria in Q1 2023, an increase of 32.5 percent from 4,345 in the same period of 2022.
On a quarter-on- quarter basis, it rose by 14.9 percent to 5,010. For full year 2022, it grew 41.9 As for the United Kingdom (UK) Nigeria has the highest number of migrants to the in the year ending June 2022 and has become the third largest nationality group in the country, a new report published by the UK Home Office has shown.
Nigerian nationals saw the largest relative increase in Sponsored Study grants compared with 2019, increasing by 57,545, which represents a 686 per cent increase, to a record high of 65,929 migrants
“Just like the United Kingdom (UK) and other countries in Europe, Canada is facing skills shortages. This is why the country has been very open to immigration in the last few years,”an immigration expert said.
But unfortunately. that rising figures of Nigerians relocating abroad for greener pasture ,popularly called Japa Syndrome, may not have translated to increase in the household remittances in the recent time..
