Remittances From Nigerian Diasporas Now Exceed The National Budget

Remittance from Nigerian diasporas (those living outside the country) has exceeded the national budget if you use black market rate. Remittance brought in $25.08 billion last year while our 2019 national budget is $24.53 billion if you use black market exchange rate. Of course there are many elements of the remittance inflow which the World Bank system does not capture. Largely, if you add all of them, the government may decide to create another ministry – Ministry of Remittance Taxation – to boost internally generated revenue in Nigeria! Lol.

With the burgeoning trends of the African diaspora, the citizens of the continent provides a massive economic opportunity both inside and outside Africa. According to the World Bank, the 10% increase in remittance inflows from 2016 to 2017, and is only expected to grow more in the coming few years. While the outside world may see the rising number of Africans moving abroad, this is actually fueled by the relative improvement of economic activities in OECD countries, not by a relative declining of the conditions within Africa. The economic value that Africans creating abroad are the main sources of remittances for Sub-Saharan African countries.

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Nigeria which led the continent in remittances in 2017, fell to second in 2018. The figure, however, increased by 10% from $19.64 billion in 2016 to $22.3 billion in 2017. There are two main reasons behind this growth.

This number for Nigeria is more than the total national budget.

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Looking at the chart, in other words, if a country is making progress, or show signs of development, less people travel out, and you have decreased remittance…

Head or tail, it’s a pathetic situation, the paltry national budget of less than $25B is nothing, with the level of deficits we are already in. So as the remittances grow, the national productivity output lowers; and decay in infrastructures will accelerate…

There is serious problem here, the countries that have been answering “developing countries” may remain so forever, because the tides are already against them.

You cannot develop a country of Nigeria’s size via remittances that go to families, herein lies the challenge.

We are about to spend half of the year on elections and squabbles that go with them, while more people line up at Immigration offices, waiting for their “calls” to be answered.

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