SENATE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS UPGRADE OF NiDCOM TO A MINISTRY

ABUJA, OCT. 13, 2022:
Impressed by the performance of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission
(NIDCOM), the newly appointed Chairman Senate Committee on Diaspora
,NGOs and Civil Society, Sen. Michael Ana-Nnachi, has suggested that
the Commission be upgraded to a full Ministry in line with global
practices, noting that India had to set up a full Ministry for Indians
abroad for total inclusion of its diaspora.

The lawmaker alongside his colleagues stated this in Thursday in Abuja
during an interactive session held at the National Assembly with the
Management of NiDCOM, led by Hon. (Dr) Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

In his words, “The volume of your work is huge, you interact more with
the grassroot diasporans and with this much responsibilities, this
agency should be a full fledged Ministry.”

Ana-Nnachi , who was apparently happy with the activities of the
commission despite paucity of funds, wondered how it has been able to
achieve such landmark achievements wthin the shortest period of its
establishment.

He, however, advised that more structures be put in place to engage more
Diaspora and assure them that their investments are safe back home.

“You should consider having attaché across all embassies, as well as
Diaspora Desks since NiDCOM is a grassroot agency”, he stated.

He equally assured that the Senate will revisit the controversial issue
of diaspora voting as well as issue of under funding of the Commission.

The lawmaker advised the Commission to come by way of proposing
ammendments to the Commission’s Act to capture all the missing links
especially on Diaspora remittances.

Earlier, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa briefed the Committee on the activities
of the Commission and pleaded with the Committee for more support
especially in the areas of appropriation as the Commission cannot
achieve anything with N8 million overhead and N40 million capital yearly
so as to meet up with its set-up mandates.

“Our work is being done but there are numerous challenges, we need the
support of this committee and we have to be intentional about overcoming
them”, she appealed.

Other issues raised by the NIDCOM boss included the just rejected
Diaspora Voting Bill, reassuring the lawmakers that there is nothing to
worry about it as smaller countries in Africa does diaspora voting.

Dabiri-Erewa used the opportunity to reiterate her appeals to Nigerians
abroad to be good ambassadors of the country by respecting the laws of
their host countries thus creating good image for the country