The House of Representatives has mandated the Committees on Diaspora, Banking and Currency, National Planning and Economic Development to interface with the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission, the Central Bank of Nigeria, money transfer operators and other stakeholders to investigate the actual amount of remittances in the last three years and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
This resolution was made following the adoption of a motion on ‘Need to Ascertain Nigeria in Diaspora Remittances and its Impact of the Nation’s Economy’ sponsored Tolulope Akande-Sadipe (APC, Osun) during plenary on Tuesday.
Akande-Sadipe said the House noted that remittances by Nigerians represent household incomes and investments from foreign economies arising mainly from the temporary or permanent movement of people to those economies and include cash and noncash items that flow through formal channels such as electronic wire, or through informal channels, such as money or goods carried across borders.
He said the House also noted that the World Bank estimated that global remittances grew by 10 percent from $633 billion in 2017 to $689 billion in 2018, with developing countries receiving 77 percent or $528 billion of the total inflows.
The House had earlier urged the Federal Government to direct the Minister of Finance and Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to release funds to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to commence rehabilitation of federal roads in the six geopolitical zones immediately before December 2019 festive season.
The House also mandated the Committees on FERMA and Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance and report back within two weeks for further legislative action.
These decisions were sequel to a motion on ‘Need to Release Funds to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) to Rehabilitate Federal Roads Across the Six Geo Political Zones’ sponsored by Nnolim Nnaji (PDP, Enugu) at Tuesday plenary.
Nnaji, while presenting the motion, said the House notes that by virtue of the provisions of Section 7 of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency Act 2002, FERMA is required to ensure efficient and effective maintenance of all existing federal trunk roads.
He said the House also noted that at the moment, majority of the roads in the six geopolitical zones are in deplorable conditions, constituting nightmares to travellers.
He said the House was also “concerned that in the next 30 days, the 2019 festive period would commence as Nigerians would be travelling to their various towns and villages in the six geopolitical zones to celebrate with their families and loved ones” and “worried that over 95 percent of Nigerians rely on transportation by road since only few can afford travelling by air and the only functional railway line at the moment is the over-crowded Abuja-Kaduna railline”.
Nnaji said the House was also aware that one of the predicaments of FERMA in fulfilling its statutory mandate of ensuring efficient and effective maintenance of federal roads is lack of adequate funding.
The House was therefore convinced that if funds are urgently released to FERMA by the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General of the Federation out of the amount allocated to FERMA in the 2019 budget, it would go a long way to address the condition of the roads in the six geopolitical zones before December 2019 festive season.
