A University don, Prof. Ofiafoh Eiya, has advocated for a policy to boost foreign earnings via Diaspora remittances into the country.
This, he said, would avert the declining revenue profile in Nigeria and save the economy from imminent foreign currency scarcity.
Eiya, a Professor of Accounting and Taxation at the University of Benin, made the call while addressing newsmen in Benin on Wednesday.
According to him, Diaspora remittance, referring to the money transferred into the country by Nigerians in foreign lands, contribute significantly to the pool of foreign currency earnings in the past years but declined recently.
“A cursory look at available data show that in 2018, Diaspora Remittance stood at $26 billion but dropped to $23.8billion in 2019 and further declined significantly to $17.21billion in 2020. However, it increased by about 11.5% to $19.2 billion in 2021.”
Eiya urged revenue authorities in the country to liaise with Nigerians in Diaspora Organization (NIDO) to ascertain the reason for the decline in their remittance into the country with a view of proffering solutions.
“Government officials have been travelling to China, Paris club, World Bank and other agencies to borrow but how many times have these officials visited NIDO to know the challenges they face or for discussions on the assistance they could offer to the economy.”
The don said it was necessary to boost Diaspora remittance due to decline in foreign currency earnings from crude oil, occasioned by oil theft.
“On the other hand, crude oil theft has affected Nigeria’s ability to meet her OPEC daily oil supply quota of 1.8mb/d as the country actual daily production is less than 1.2mb/d currently.
“By this shortfall, Nigeria is losing billions of dollars annually to oil theft with negative implications in our drive for infrastructure development.
“Oil theft is criminal and could be controlled, using modern technology.
“Government should also consider effective collaboration with host oil communities to reduce or eliminate this criminal behaviour among our citizens and redirect their energy towards legitimate businesses”.
The Professor who is also a revenue expert, further advised the Federal Government to formulate a robust national revenue management policy to curb the declining revenue in the country’s public and private sector.
“Revenue management is a strategic concept that requires regular identification, segmentation and forecast of revenue sources and behavior of revenue payers, using analytics and performance data.”
(NAN)
