Sunday Olatuyi

Ahead of the forthcoming general elections the
Nigerians In Diaspora Commission has appealed to National assembly to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow Nigerians outside the country to participate in the coming elections.

Chairman of the commission,  Abike Dabiri-Erewa  made the appeal at a Press Conference in Abuja on Thursday while speaking about forthcoming 2021 Diaspora Day.

She said it will be easy to collate diaspora votes electronically, as each vote will be attached to the state of origin of each voters.

Dabiri explained that an estimated demography of over 17million Nigerians living outside boundaries of Nigeria and sending home remittances of about 25 billion US dollars annually.

She noted that the home remittances are over 83 per cent of the National budget and 6.1per cent of the Nation’s Gross domestic products (GDP).

Thirty percent of the home remittances are channeled into investments including real estate,  commercial businesses among others.