Dispora Remittances; A Key Component To Our National Development – Gov Okezie Ikpeazu

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has made it clear that the remittances and returns from Nigerians who live in the diaspora are key elements in our national development.

Ikpeazu made this known this night when he received a delegation of diaspora Nigerians who paid him a courtesy visit at the Governor’s Lodge, Abuja as part of the National Diaspora Day organized by the NIGERIANS IN THE DIASPORA COMMISSION ( NIDCOM) held in Abuja.

Governor Ikpeazu thanked Nigerians in the diaspora for their relentless contributions to national development through their various activities in their countries of residence and hailed their commitment to critical issues at home.

He particularly hailed Abia indigenes in the Diaspora for keeping faith with his administration through the creation of critical linkages through which different kinds of assistance come home. He recounted with delight, the various donations of medical equipment from Abians in the diaspora which have helped to boost health care delivery in the state, and called on them to move a step further and invest in human development through scholarships and grants to bright and indigent students at home.

He said that his administration will continue to create strong partnerships with Abians in the diaspora with a view to providing additional channels for meaningful cooperation.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation and Special Adviser to the Governor on Diaspora Matters, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Ogbonna Erondu told the Governor that they were in Nigeria for their Diaspora Summit which provides a platform for Nigerians living in different parts of the world to come home and rub minds on issues of development with a view to expanding their capacity to get more involved in development activities back home.

She informed the Governor that Abians in the diaspora will, later this year launch the ABIA DIASPORA EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENT FUND which will provide annual scholarships for 60 students drawn from across the state. The scholarship will cover every single fee from JS1 to SS3 and thereafter to the tertiary institutions.
The process for the selection will be competitive and worked out in conjunction with the State Ministry of Education.

Mr. Godson Azu, an Abian resident in the UK later presented the Governor with a copy of a book he wrote on Nigeria’s Political Development.

Onyebuchi Ememanka, Esq.
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor.
25th July, 2019.