Remittance of Nigerians living abroad was $22 billion in 2017. In 2018, the same remittance saw a 14 percent growth to $25 billion. This is 7 times the size of foreign aid ($3.359 billion) to Nigeria.
The $25 billion remittances represent 6.1 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was $2.200 billion.
“PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC, noted that the amount translates to 83 percent of the federal government’s budget in 2018 and 11 times the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the same period.”
With an average remittance fee of 6%, Nigerian generated US$ 1.5 billion in fees for the money
transfer corporations. A fraction of this in the form of investment will boost our economy and lead to better governing. The $1.5 billion is almost 70% of the Foreign Direct Investment. Nigerians in Diaspora can assist in turning the country into a self-sufficient economy without the need and dependency on hand out (foreign aid).
Remittances are an important share of foreign reserves for countries, but their impact on development
and economic growth is minimal if they are only spent on consumption. The remittances have done the right thing by first, giving the person a fish and banishing their hunger; the next step is to teach them to fish.
If every Nigerian in the diaspora with the means to remit average of $300.00 a year contributes/invests twenty dollars (the remittance fee) or just 1% – 2% of the $1.5 billion and pool their own resources, the country could move from charity case to wealth creator. The benefits of this minimum investment would be profound.
Africans must lift themselves up by their bootstraps and move from charity case to wealth creator. But to achieve this shift, Nigerians must think like Investors/Entrepreneurs.
In his 2006 book, The White Man’s Burden, William Easterly estimated that between 1956 and 2006 more than $2.3 trillion in aid flowed to Africa. We cannot and must not be content with being fed fish we must learn or teach ourselves to fish.
“The aid business is the only industry in which if it’s done right the people fire themselves. Who is going to do that?” “They have people who have never been in business, never built a business, never sold a thing in their lives — these are the people who are now supposed to come and help poor farmers write a business plan for growing something and selling it.” – Magatte Wade
If you agree with the above quotes, why then are you trying to duplicate it?
Aid and foreign donations including remittances are top-down approaches. The authorities (the donors) treat recipients as passive beneficiaries of aid rather than as active participants in the process; they tell people what they need rather than think to ask what is needed or required.
We are suggesting an investment platform that is a bottom-up /participatory action in contrast to top-down approaches. Participatory action involves collaboration across all stages of the program, from identifying the issues of concern, designing, and implementing the mutually-agreed upon changes.
With your minimum of $20.00 investment, you become a co-owner in the corporation. You can suggest and contribute ideas and programs needed/required in your state, town, local government or village. Implementation will be based on needs and economic viability. This is not an aid organization this is a business enterprise.
Entrepreneurs are the key to a prosperous nation. Nigerians do not need to wait for the world to come to our rescue. We have the resources, capacity and the capability we need right here at home to develop our nation. After so many decades of dependence on foreign funding, it is time that wealth and not poverty dictates how our country develops. By our own bootstraps, Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics Income Distribution is attainable.
Our mission is to utilize these private contributions (US$20.00 minimum) and develop an Equity Firm into a large scale investment firm that develops and expands economically viable businesses that will provide dividend income, capital appreciation, and interest income to the investors.
With the contribution of 6.1 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the equivalent of”83 percent of the federal government’s budget in 2018”, Nigerians in the diaspora already has the economic strength. All that is missing is the political strength.
Once the Nigerians in the diaspora are able to cast their votes in all elections, they will/can easily secure/obtain the political strength. To have a firm political strength, the economic strength must be strongly rooted hence the proposed minimum investment as the beginning.
Source: thenigerianvoice
