"How to attract over $100bn yearly remittances like India"

" How to attract over $100bn yearly remittances like India \r\nIndians in diaspora sent a record $120 billion back home in 2023, surpassing the $100 billion mark for the second consecutive year.\r\n\r\nThis amount is nearly double the combined total of net foreign investments\u2014both foreign direct investments (FDI) and portfolio investments\u2014which stood at $54 billion for the year.\r\n\r\nThe World Bank forecasts that India\u2019s remittances will grow by 3.7 percent in 2024 and 4 percent in 2025.\r\n\r\nBut the global lender says the Nigerian diaspora remit between $20 billion and $25 billion annually.\r\n\r\nThough India\u2019s population is seven times Nigeria\u2019s, the South Asian nation has done more to squeeze remittances off its 32 million diasporans than the West African nation.\r\n\r\nAnalysts say investment in education, especially in skills and talent development, is one of the things Nigeria can do to attract over $100 billion yearly remittances like India.\r\n\r\nMuda Yusuf, chief executive of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, said India invests more in education and skills \u2013 medical or entertainment \u2013 which are in high demand abroad.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf we must move up to that level, we need to invest in skills, which is of high demand globally,\u201d Yusuf said.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat investment must be very high. At the heart of it is investment in human capital, investment in education and development of our talents. If we invest in all of these, we will be able to achieve more than what we are achieving now.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe second point is that we need to look at not only the high-level skills but also some low-level skills like the Philippines, next to India. They export a lot of skills in the area of maritime. They invest a lot in training care-givers. Many countries need a lot of care-givers for their ageing population,\u201d he explained.\r\n\r\nYusuf stressed that Nigerians should be trained as plumbers, drivers and in other technical areas and sent abroad.\r\n\r\n\u201cBeyond top skills like medical doctors, ICT, we need to think out of the box and look at other areas in high demand, train citizens, and package them for export.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe further advised Nigeria to take outsourcing programmes seriously like Indians.\r\n\r\nFor Yemi Kale, group chief economist and managing director, research and international cooperation, Afreximbank, population is a major factor.\r\n\r\n\u201cI don\u2019t think this is an issue. India\u2019s population is over five times more than Nigeria\u2019s and their diaspora population is also much higher,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\n\u201cMoney you send depends on your population as well as economic activity engaged in,\u201d he said, adding that it also depends on the ease of sending money back home, which speaks to domestic foreign exchange (FX) policies.\r\n\r\nAdetilewa Adebajo, chief executive officer, The CFG Advisory, said: \u201cWe need to improve the quality of our education system so that our graduates can become sellable abroad. Human capital development is key.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe World Bank has estimated that there are around 1.7 million Nigerians living abroad. But this is a 2018\/2019 data.\r\n\r\nNigerian officials and diaspora organizations cite figures ranging from five million to 15 million, including both documented and undocumented migrants.\r\n\r\nA PwC Report entitled, \u2018Strength from Abroad: The Economic Power of Nigeria\u2019s Diaspora,\u201d published in 2019, estimated the Nigerian diaspora population at over three million but acknowledged unofficial reports suggesting a much higher number.\r\n\r\nTaiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, recently revealed that only 10 percent of the $20 billion in diaspora remittances for 2023 made it to the Nigerian foreign exchange market.\r\n\r\nMohammed Idris, minister of information and culture, said in March 2024 that the federal government has attracted $30 billion FDI to the real sector of the economy.\r\n\r\nHe quoted the World Bank\u2019s estimates that $20 billion was sent to Nigeria in 2023. However, he said the majority of these funds were externalized via digital transfers from other countries.\r\n\r\nThe World Bank says remittances are a vital source of household income for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). They alleviate poverty, improve nutritional outcomes, and are associated with increased birth weight and higher school enrollment rates for children in disadvantaged households.\r\n\r\nStudies show that remittances help recipient households to build resilience, for example through financing better housing and coping with losses in the aftermath of disasters.\r\n\r\nRemittances to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region most highly exposed to the effects of the global crisis, grew an estimated 5.2 percent to $53 billion in 2022, compared with 16.4 percent last year (due mainly to strong flows to Nigeria and Kenya).\r\n "

"How to attract over $100bn yearly remittances like India"

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