US medical practitioner claims Ndigbo remit as much as $60bn back home annually

IGBO diasporans remit a grand total of $60bn back to Nigeria every year according to US medical practitioner Dr Nwachukwu Anakwenze who happens to be the traditional prime minister of Abagana in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.

Nationally, Nigerian diasporans are believed to remit a total of $25bn back home every year, which is four times the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) the country attracts. However, according to Dr Anakwenze, this figure is hugely under-reported as a lot of informal payments are not documented.

Dr Anakwenze, who runs a chain of hospitals that employs over 5,000 professionals in the US, said that the remitted money made a positive impact in the economy of the southeast geo-political zone. He added, however, that the main concern of Nigerians residing abroad is enthronement of the right leadership to make the country to take its rightful place among the committee of nations.

According to Dr Anakwenze , the people in the diaspora have been contributing significantly to the development of their communities and are prepared to do more, provided the right atmosphere is created. He said, for instance, that his people in the US have raised substantial amounts to renovate the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), to improve healthcare services in the area.

Dr Anakwenze said: “We are raising the funds from individual Abagana people and as a group. We already have over $100,000, which was raised last month. We’re also going to approach our people in other parts of the world to do the same. Whatever the government can do is good but we want to help ourselves as a community.

“We have a lot of educated people and those in business who have a lot of money and they are prepared to support the development of their towns. All they need is to see that we are serious and the money will flow.

He argued that Nigeria could do much better than it is doing at the moment, lamenting that the problem is that the people running the governments are below average and that is why they are failing the people. Dr Anakwenze described the Igbo as very important if we want to see the fast development of Nigeria and called for their proper inclusion in the affairs of country

“Nigeria should be aiming to be a world power but we can’t achieve that with the kind of people ruling her. God gave us everything and we can’t manage them, which is very unfortunate. If we have people with brains, Nigeria will be a world power.

"At the moment, Nigeria is carrying last which is bad. We have to start producing, not sitting and consuming. It’s shameful that we are still importing almost everything and as long as we continue to do that, our naira will continue to be nothing.

“Unless Nigeria realises the value of the Igbos, they will continue to carry last. We have the brains to match the Chinese and the Japanese in manufacturing. The things we manufacture in Aba and Onitsha and Nnewi are what can make the country grow, not sharing money and occupying government positions and giving jobs to family members who are not even qualified to hold such jobs,” Dr Anakwenze added.