Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the agency will work towards collating data of all Nigerians living abroad.
Mrs Dabiri-Erewa said a special website portal will be created by the commission where all diaspora groups, individuals and organisations will be registered.
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She explained that without necessary data to know the total number of Nigerians living abroad, planning will be uncoordinated.
She said the National Identity Management Commission had flagged off the capturing in some countries, while the Nigeria Immigration Service has also eased the process of passport procurement and renewals with the launching of a ten-year validity document as well as visa on arrival policy.
Other issues discussed include maltreatment of Nigerians abroad, alleged preference of the Nigeria Government for other nationals to execute projects in Nigeria, repatriation of Nigerians, Federal government’s road map on the power sector, health and Education.
The meeting also discussed NIDCOM relationship with African Union and ECOWAS as well as Ministries, Department and Agencies in Nigeria to minimise the bottlenecks and bureaucracies that Nigeria returnees do face in which Dabiri-Erewa assured them of NIDCOM positive intervention.
The NIDCOM boss, however, said the Commission has opened some dedicated emails (admin@nidcom.gov.ng, info@nidcom.gov.ng) and phone contacts (+1888644237213, +1234222231) as well as Artificial Intelligence AI chatbot Platform where all ideas , suggestions and instant responses are collated.
Dabiri-Erewa used the opportunity to condole again the families of over 30 Nigerians in the Diaspora who died as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, mostly in America and UK, for God to accept their souls and their families to have the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses.
The online webinar townhall meeting with the Diaspora was the second in the series of major meetings after that of UK two weeks ago.
