Three thousand participants are to be part of the 3rd Nigeria Diaspora Investment Summit (NDIS) 2020, convened by Nigeria Diaspora Summit Initiative (NDSI) in collaboration with Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM).

The Chairman/CEO, NIDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who made the disclosure Monday at the press briefing, said the two-day Virtual Summit which kicks off on November 20th, is aimed at creating an avenue for prospective, meaningful and sustainable Diaspora Investment to be relied upon to boost economic growth in Nigeria.

The event to be declared open by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has the theme: “’Post-COVID-19 Economic Resurgence: Targeting Diaspora Investment”, is free for participants but pitchers are to pay. The virtual summit will also showcase the investment opportunities and development framework put in place to make investing in Nigeria more attractive to Nigeria Diaspora investors.

This year’s summit will focus on these key sectors: Healthcare, Education, Agribusiness, Creative, Entertainment & Sports, Telecommunication, ICT/Fintech, Manufacturing and Real Estate.

She said this was the best time to invest in Nigeria, adding that the summit will also address challenges of the two previous summits as well as showcase success stories of those who have dared to return home to invest.

According to her, Nigerians from previous summits have returned to invest in the healthcare, food business, education, ICT and agriculture sector.

The NIDCOM boss expressed happiness with the younger generations that have indicated interest to invest in Nigeria.

According to her, “COVID will go away, our lives will be normal again but this is the best time to invest in our country. The good thing is that every state now has focal persons on Diaspora matters who will make available investment opportunities to participants.

She said it was at the second investment summit last year, that 50 Nigerians based in Saudi Arabia, who have never been to the country, came home for the first time and invested. Dabiri-Erewa described the summit as a knowledge ground for investments, adding it would also address the issue Nigerians in Ghana and those that have indicated interest to return home due to hash operational conditions imposed by Ghanaian authorities.

She said for the 753 Nigerian business owners in Ghana who have indicated interest in returning home, the ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Industry, Trade and Investment were already responding to the closure of shops belonging to Nigerians in Ghana, with a view to resolving them.

Dabiri-Erewa said: “753 actually signed the document that says they want to return to Nigeria. So with this request from them, what is going on now is that the three ministers involved will have some engagement with them to see what actually should be the next thing.”

“Now you’ve said you want to come to your country, so there should be no problem about that. They are Nigerians and we are proud of them and glad to return them home…”

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