[size=20pt]Nigerians in diaspora remit $1.7billion annually[/size]
National News Dec 19, 2009

By Peter DURU, Makurdi
Professor Toyin Falola of the University of Texas, United States of America has disclosed that Nigerians in diaspora remit over $1.7billion annually to boost the nation’s economy.
He disclosed that these remittances were to family members and friends in the country, advising that the nation tapped into this foreign exchange source to stimulate development in the country.

Delivering a paper at a public lecture organised by the History Department of Benue State University, Makurdi, titled “Citizens at home, citizens abroad and the globalization of knowledge”, the don noted that the huge transfers could be translated to tangible developments for the teeming populace.

Professor Falola, who was invested with the Julius Nyerere Professorial chair of Modern African History by the Vice Chancellor of Benue State University, Professor Paul Akase Sorkaa, described himself as a Structural Adjustment Programme SAP Diasporan.

He, however, maintained that “the remittances from the Diaspora could be a veritable means of sustaining the nation’s ailing economy”.

Decrying the adversity of the economic policies as SAP on the economies of developing countries like Nigeria, the don noted that Africa has lost no fewer than 14 million of her citizens to the western world through slavery, while the unfavorable economic policies premised on the SAP in the 1980s drove that similar figure to the west.
He stressed that the country could tap from the opportunities presented it through the affluence of Nigerians in Diaspora, but raised concerns over the endemic corruption in the country which, he noted, could thwart the opportunities presented by the current scenario.

He cite the state of Israel, Mexico and the Philippines as countries that have taken full advantage of their citizens in Diaspora to improve their technological and economic prowess in the last decade, stressing that Nigeria could do likewise.

In his remark, the Vice Chancellor of Benue State University, Makurdi, Professor Sorkaa, stated that the university has put a process in motion to collaborate with the nation’s intelligentsia in the Diaspora to develop the institution.
Declaring open the lecture, Governor Gabriel Suswam assured of his administration’s commitment to the funding of the state-owned university to meet the academic needs of the people.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/12/19/nigerians-in-diaspora-remit-1-7billion-annually/

whats d big deal? How many billions of dollars do foreigners take out of the Nigerian economy on a yearly basis?

Wao! dta's cool

$1.7 billions is small money compared to the number of Nigerians living Abroad.

mexicans send home about $20 billion a year, Brazilians about $6 billion etc . . .
kai naija folks are stingy sha