Richard Young, Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU) on Thursday expressed optimism that Nigeria will benefit tremendously from global remittances with effective implementation of the new Labour migration policy and he revealed that 5m Nigerians live abroad.
He gave this assurance at the unveiling of the National Policy on Labour Migration in Abuja yesterday. He said that Nigeria and four other countries which include India, China, Philippines and Mexico had been mentioned by the World Bank as top recipients of global remittance in 2012.
“Nigeria is estimated to have received about N21 billion in remittances in 2012 as compared to the N2.3 billion in 2004; being by far the largest recipients of remittance in Sub-Sahara Africa. “Accordingly, Nigeria is followed by Senegal and Kenya in the Sub-Sahara Africa.
According to him, over 5 million Nigerians are living abroad according to a 2009 estimate, adding that due to Economic growth following the oil boom in 1975, Nigeria also became an immigration country with about 600,000 foreigners coming into Nigeria.
Young assured that “the IT equipment provided to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment led to the establishment and functioning of the National Electronic Exchange (NELEX) as a platform for job seekers to access job opportunities. So far, the platform had facilitated around 150 jobs’ matching for job seekers.”
While speaking, Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment who lamented over the inability of Nigerian economy to meet employment requirement of its teeming population, however opined that the new migration policy will give a new lease of life to Nigerians seeking jobs outside the shores of the country and surmount the challenge of countless Nigerian illegal immigrants, some of whom die trying to cross the Sahara and the Mediterranean.
“This is of utmost concern to the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as no responsible government would sit back and watch the depletion of its human resources which is the most critical factor of production and national development,’’ the Minister said.
“The risks associated with irregular migration and its impact on the country’s human resources and national development necessitated the development of this coherent policy on labour migration which aims at promoting decent work and respectability of migrant workers.”
He noted that the objective of the policy was to promote the good governance of labour migration, protect immigrant workers as well as their welfare and optimize the benefits of labour migration on development.
The Minister further remarked that the policy conferred Regular Immigrant Status on persons in their countries of destination, saying that the policy was developed with technical and financial support of International Organisation for Migration and the International Labour Organisation.
He added that the framework for achieving the implementation of the policy included “the establishment of job centres for the placement of job seekers into genuine vacancies, notified by employers from across the country and abroad.
“Towards this end, the Ministry of labour and Employment with technical and financial support from ILO, and IOM and funding from the European Development Fund equipped six functional job centres in Bauchi, Kaduna, Delta, Anambra and Abuja. The job centres provide the platform for matching demand and supply in the labour market.”
