The Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, (NIDCOM), Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has said more African countries joining the Diaspora bandwagon to establish and properly engage their respective Diasporas will catapult continental development and growth.
Dabiri-Erewa stated this during the Second Study Tour of the Commission and other agencies by Ethiopian delegation facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Abuja.
NIDCOM Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit in a press statement, Friday, said the Chairman/CEO, who was represented by the Secretary to the commission, Engr Dr Sule Yakubu Bassi, stated that the tour would help integrate Africans in the Diaspora to support and contribute back home.
The statement signed by Gabriel Odu, noted that the secretary to the commission emphasized that NIDCOM was a part of the national migration system and would be transparent in helping provide steps and processes to creating a functional, credible and accurate data collection system.
Bassi, however, said the Nigerian situation was different because the Nigerian Constitution allowed for dual citizenship unlike other countries like Ethiopia.
On his part, NIDCOM Head of Technology Transfer and Innovation (TTI), Hon. Abdulrahman Terab, explained that creating such a system would require a collection of basic data to be able to engage their citizens abroad.
He added that the basic data can be collated through embassies, missions and different associations, groups and clubs of Ethiopians in the diaspora.
Terab further highlighted that the most improved way of data collation for the Commission is the Diaspora Data Mapping Portal which helps collate the needed data such as skill sets and basic needs of a Nigerian in the Diaspora for proper profiling.
Also speaking, the Deputy Director General for Ethiopia Statistics Service, Mr. Asalfew Abera, stated that Ethiopia planned to develop a potential perspective plan which aims to build a prosperous country thereby creating good citizens, as migration is a dynamic and development issue.
The team of ESS hoped that collaboration with the commission would enhance the use of legal and proper migration and through NIDCOM’s support there would be continental development and growth.
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