World Bank has urged Nigeria to create a bilateral migration policy to promote the legal migration of Nigerians so that legal migration will boost remittances and foster economic growth. Furthermore, an economist requested Nigeria to sign a bilateral migration agreement with countries in need of the country’s skills in abundance. Likewise, the United Kingdom needs nurses, simultaneously a construction partnership with Germany and an ICT partnership with European countries and other global partners.
Current scenario of Nigeria
Nigeria’s working-age population is expanding rapidly. The working-age population will grow by 133 million between 2021 and 2050, thereby adding existing employment pressure to the economy. In contrast, high-income OECD countries are facing a rapidly ageing population. Thus, Nigeria’s population growth is steepest compared to other countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, and many more. At the same time, the population has extended rapidly, which leads to drying up the opportunities in the Nigerian labour market.
Few Recommendations
- Securing and maintaining partnerships with destination countries. It is directly relevant to the Sustainable Development Goal, which opens new channels for safe, orderly and regular migration.
- Offering migrants abroad representation and diminishing the fees of remittances by progressing competition in the remittance market.
- Mainstreaming migration in a few key national policy documents like several are associated with labour migration and migration.
Nigerian migrants for the last few decades have increased threefold and stands at about 1.4 million in 2019.
Good news: Nigerian Remittances Rebound in Top Sub Sahara Africa
According to the press release on November 17, 2021, the increase in remittance sent is a rebound from the total remittances that Nigerians sent in the corresponding period last year. Therefore, the above statement partly attributes the rise due to measures introduced by the country’s monetary authorities. The efforts attempt to encourage the practice of formal channels when sending money back home.
‘Nigeria, the region’s largest recipient, encounters a moderate rebound in remittance flows, in part due to the increasing influence of policies intended to channel inflows through the banking system’.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had just issued its directive that focused on crypto entities. It was announced from the start of an incentive scheme that rewarded recipients for withdrawing via the banking system in March 2021. Since then, officials have declared that the project is advocating to improve the flow of formal remittances into the country.
Nigeria stands once again the biggest recipient of Sub Sahara Africa’s where the money transfers went up by 6.2 percent to $45 billion.
Sending Fees Still Far Below UN Target
Now the concern is about the cost of remittances. The World Bank stated that the region’s sending fee dropped marginally from 8.9% to 8% in the first quarter of 2021 but remained one of the highest in the world. Furthermore, World Bank adds the high cost of sending remittance to Sub Sahara Africa to the small quantities of formal flows and the utilisation of the black-market exchange rates.
The remittance fees display that the Sub Sahara Africa region is still way above the UN sustainable development goal (SDG), which targets to reduce this to less than 3 percent. Simultaneously, only the Southeast Asia region has sent costs close to this SDG indicator with 4.6 percent.
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