The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission reports that the United Kingdom is home to the most registered Nigerians abroad.
In an effort to mobilise comprehensive and accurate data on Nigerians living abroad, NiDCOM unveiled its Data Mapping and Registry Portal in Abuja on June 29, 2021.
As of the time this article was filed, Diasporas from 28 different nations have registered on the portal, according to the information provided to our correspondent on Wednesday.
The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimated Nigeria’s diaspora population to be 1.7 million in 2020, despite the commission not providing a statistic for the entire number of registered diasporas.
According to the breakdown of the data provided by NiDCOM, there are 5.4% of registered Diaspora Nigerians in the United Arab Emirates and 22.5% of registered Diaspora Nigerians in the United States.
Other nations with significant percentages include Qatar (4.8%), Canada (4.4%), South Africa (4.0%), Germany (2.5%), Saudi Arabia (2.3%), Italy (2.3%), Gnana (1.5%), Malaysia (1.1%), France (0.9%), Spain (0.9%), and Uganda (0.7%).
The data also revealed that Australia had 0.7%, China had 0.7%, the Benin Republic had 0.7%, Sierra Leone had 0.7%, Turkey had 0.7%, Switzerland had 0.7%, Russia had 0.6%, the Philippines had 0.6%, the Niger Republic had 0.6%, Ireland had 0.6%, Ukraine had 0.5%, and Kyrgyzstan had 0.1%.
Addressing the low registration, the NiDCOM’s Head of Technology Transfer Innovation, Abdulrahman Terab, said “Most Diasporas are just gaining confidence in the country. We try as much as possible that the Diasporas register online whenever we have programmes, events, or activities.”
