Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government has assured South African returnees that it will not abandon them as efforts were on to continue the rehabilitation and empowerment programmes.
This is even as the Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has offered scholarship to one of the children that returned from South Africa as a result of xenophobic attacks.
Chairman/CEO of the agency, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, gave the assurance when she had audience with a South African widow returnee, Mrs. Yinka Iyoha, yesterday.
The widow’s plight attracted attention of Multichoice Nigeria which donated a cheque of N1 million through NiDCOM for her four children to start a new life back home. Dabiri-Erewa equally announced a scholarship to one of the children.
The NIDCOM boss said the Federal Government is kickstarting an entrepreneurship programme for the returnees in collaboration with Small and Medium scale Enterprises Development Agencies (SMEDAN) and National Directorate of Employment (NDE).