(Ecofin Agency) – The new fund should capture part of migrants’ transfers to invest it in priority sectors. These include infrastructure, health and education.
The Nigerian government launched, this Friday, April 26, 2024, a call for tenders for the choice of a fund manager for the design and establishment of an investment fund intended to capture part of the transfers from migrants to support projects in priority sectors such as infrastructure, healthcare and education.
This fund, whose size has been set at $10 billion, will have a lifespan of 10 years, which could be extended by two additional years.
Its launch “is part of broader efforts to strengthen ties between Nigeria and its diaspora, promote national development and harness the potential of 20 million Nigerians living abroad as agents of change and development”, underlined the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in its tender notice.
The ministry also said interested fund managers must have had verifiable operations in Nigeria within the last five years, track record of raising capital and managing large and profitable venture capital funds. They are invited to submit their application before May 6, 2024.
Remittances from Nigerians living abroad to their home countries stood at $20.1 billion in 2022, according to World Bank data. But these transfers do not often go through the official foreign exchange market, where the scarcity of the greenback is a persistent problem that contributes to the volatility and depreciation of the naira.
Also read:
04/29/2022 – Faced with financial pressures, Nigeria plans to issue its second “diaspora bonds”
03/24/2021 – Nigeria: the Central Bank restricts the number of operators authorized to receive transfers from the diaspora
08/03/2021 – Nigeria will pay citizens who receive dollars from the diaspora via the official circuit
08/21/2019 – Nigeria: in 2018, remittances from the diaspora were 11 times higher than FDI captured (PWC)
