…As W’Bank projects $22bn in remittances
By Isaac Anumihe
With the World Bank projecting an inflow of $22 billion into Nigeria from Diaspora remittances in 2017, the world’s fifth largest, Nigerian professionals in the United States of America, at the weekend, inaugurated the Nigerian-American Business Forum to chart a way for Nigeria’s development.
In the conference with the theme, “Investing in Nigeria from the Diaspora: Challenges and Opportunities”, the professionals said that the forum was focused on ways to apply the professionals’ wealth of experience to the country’s development challenges.
The Health and Business Development Work Group, one of the professional committees inaugurated at the Nigerian-American Business Forum at Florida, is to come up with workable solutions to the health and business challenges in Nigeria.
The forum inaugurated work groups comprising accomplished professionals that would come up with practical solutions to tackle the different sectoral challenges facing the country. They included Infrastructure and Technology; Health and Business Development; Economic and Finance; and Social Responsibility, among others.
Delivering his address at the inauguration of the forum, President, Nigerian-American Business Forum, Mr. Kenneth Shobola, said the forum is aimed to impact the wealth of experience of accomplished Nigerians in Diaspora for the rapid development of their homeland.
“Negative news is what you tend to hear much about Nigeria and these get magnified but they represent just few Nigerians. Therefore, we are standing up to begin to step in to correct such negativity and change the narratives.
“Many Nigerian Diasporas have stood out not only about what they do in the Diaspora but they have returned home to impact on Nigeria. People of Nigerian descent have made landmark contributions to the US and back home,” Shobola said.
He said the primary objective of the forum is to foster a safer investment environment for entrepreneurial business in Nigeria from the Diaspora and the globe.