Trump’s victory: Nigeria may record fall in Diaspora remittances – Analyst

An Economic Analyst, Ugochukwu Agu, says there will be less foreign remittances from Nigerians living in the United States, following the victory of Republican Donald Trump in the US elections.
Agu said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said that if this happened, it would have a lot of direct and indirect impact on the Nigerian economy.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that $21 billion was sent home by Nigerians in the Diaspora in 2015, with a large chunk coming from the US, the Migration of Remittance Fact-book 2016 has shown.
Recently, the Central Bank of Nigeria directed that Diaspora remittances through International Money Transfer Operators should be used to fund the Bureau de Change segment.
Also, the CBN directed commercial banks to sell $50,000 Diaspora-related Forex on a weekly basis to nearly 3,000 BDC operators.
This is in acknowledgement of the role of the BDCs in achieving exchange rate stability and making Forex available to the retail end of the market.
However, if these remittances stop coming, it may further destabilise the market.
According to Agu, foreign remittances are a key part of our national income and the emergence of Trump as the president of the US is likely to affect foreign remittances by Nigerians.
He said: “There are a lot of Nigerians that live day to day with support from their relatives abroad and if Donald Trump makes real his treat on immigrants, then Nigerians will be affected as well.
“Also, our foreign reserve, apart from oil, remittance from Nigerians in Diaspora is one of our other sources of foreign exchange.
“So, it stands to reason that it will be a major hit to the Nigerian economy.”
Agu said that the country was likely to also lose a lot of money in foreign aids from the US.
He said: “From the past experiences, the Republican Party is not keen on international development, so we should expect the support to international community to drop.
“It stands to reason that assistance to Nigeria from the US Government and organisations such as USAID will significantly reduce.”
NAN recalls that USAID has a running $240 million fund to assist in the rebuilding of the North East.
Also, the US Government donated 24 armoured vehicles worth $11 million to the Nigerian army as part of the efforts to fight the security challenge in the country.
Agu urged the Federal Government to start looking inwards and not to depend on foreign aid in case “President Trump makes good of his threats”.
NAN.