The N80 billion investment fund for Nigerians abroad

SINCE assuming power over a year ago, the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has promoted its seven-point agenda as the instrument to make Nigeria one of the 20 advanced economies in the world by the year 2020. Not much has been done in practical terms to demonstrate any serious commitment to this objective, except that the Minister of Industries, Chief Charles Ugwu, recently extended the government's investment campaign overseas with a package that will give Nigerians in the Diaspora the opportunity to draw from an N80 billion investment fund.

Although the government's intention is clear, we think that the proposal is ill-conceived. Contrary to the government's thinking, the very low level of foreign direct investment in the Nigerian economy is not for want of investible funds but is a direct consequence of the structural deficiencies of the local economy that make it unattractive to foreign investors, including Nigerians in the Diaspora.

source:http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/editorial_opinion/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=230708&ptitle=The%20N80%20billion%20investment%20fund%20for%20Nigerians%20abroad
According to the proposal unfolded by the minister in Berlin, Germany, any Nigerian citizen interested in participating in the country's industrialisation but lacks the means could draw from the fund. The money is apparently part of the National Resource Fund (NRF) meant for local capacity building, technology transfer, and product standardisation as a means to boosting the country's export in manufactured goods. In the course of the discussion in Berlin, the minister also revealed that the country needed the expertise of Nigerians in the Diaspora in such fields as meteorology, metallurgy and petrochemicals in order to grow the national economy.

An analysis of the minister's statement reveals that there are in fact two tracks in the government proposal. One deals with making funds available for Nigerians in the Diaspora who may want to invest in the national economy while the other deals with the issue of repatriating Nigerian expertise in the Diaspora for the benefit of the local economy. In essence, the government is thinking of reversing the brain drain of the last three decades that has seen the country lose the cream of its professional elite to foreign countries. And therein lies the fallacy of the whole proposal.

Like all investors everywhere, Nigerians in the Diaspora will only invest in an economy that provides the necessary enabling environment for foreign direct investment. No rational and serious investors, including Nigerians, will put their money in an economy that lacks the necessary investment dynamism. Certainly, not in Nigeria where unemployment among graduates of tertiary institutions, not to talk of the teeming masses of primary and secondary school graduates and drop-outs, is so disgracefully high.

If the economy is unable to absorb Nigerians at home, how can it be attractive to Nigerians in the Diaspora who left the country as economic migrants? Early last year the then Minister of Education, Dr. (Mrs.) Oby Ezekwesili, lamenting the decay in the country's educational system, revealed that 70 per cent of the graduates of Nigerian institutions are unemployed, underemployed and unemployable. Recently, the Governor of the Central Bank, Prof. Charles Soludo, commented along similar lines when he said that over 60 per cent of the people who apply for jobs in Nigeria are unemployable. Put simply, the educational system does not equip them to meet the challenges of today's workplace operating environment.

Worse, the real sector has been terribly incapacitated by lack of basic infrastructure. Productivity and capacity utilisation in the sector is very low, and has been like that for years. The same can be said of agriculture. In spite of government's claim to the contrary, not much is happening in the national economy. The windfall that the country is making from the high price of crude oil in the international market is not being translated into accelerated industrialisation. At least Nigerians cannot feel that there is much dynamism in the economy. This is not an economy that will lure Nigerians in the Diaspora to come back home.

For all practical purposes, therefore, the N80 billion that the government is setting aside for Nigerians abroad to draw from will not meet its objectives. If past experience is anything to go by, the fund may follow the usual trajectory of appropriation for personal aggrandisement, rather than for the national purpose.

Nigerians are patriotic citizens. They want to be proud of their country, but are disappointed that the ruling elite lack the will to get it right for the benefit of the national collective. The government should concentrate its effort in making the economy beneficial for those still at home. Once this is done, Nigerians in the Diaspora will come home on their own volition, inspired by the national purpose to build a country we shall all be proud and excited about

well, guys in diaspora this is your own share of national cake

how do you show or know a nigerian in diaspora?

what country makes you in diaspora?

is Togo, Benin, Cameroun included as example?

yes oooooo

I am interested. Who do you contact please. My email is info@.com

contact the Nigeria embassy in your place of abode.

Another avenue for our corrupt govt officials to share N80 billion! Nigeria we hail thee.

bilymuse:

contact the Nigeria embassy in your place of abode.

Besides contacting Nigeria Embassy, where else can you go in Nigeria to access this funds?