…to facilitate interaction with 15 million Nigerians living abroad
Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama says that his ministry will launch a 24-hour, seven days citizens desk for responding to complaints of Nigerians from across the world the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
The Nigerian Observer foresees that this would foster communication between government and the estimated 15-million Nigerians in the diaspora, who remit $25-billion back home annually.
Onyeama made this known on Thursday, in Abuja at the 22nd Edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration Scorecard while presenting the achievements of the Foreign Ministry in the past seven years.
He said that the desk would be a game-changer with the government’s active presence in almost all the countries.
“We are setting up a citizen’s desk so that a 24/7 team should be there, so that Nigerians all over the world can call a dedicated line of the help desk.
“We are about to launch that very soon and this will be a real game changer for Nigerians who are outside the country.
“We are also putting up a diplomatic service digitisation initiative so that all our embassies will be able to have one unified communication network,” Onyeama said.
He said that under Buhari’s intervention on creating an enabling environment for ease of doing business, the Ministry had also developed a match making portal to boost foreign direct investments.
“In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have developed a match making portal to facilitate this exchange between Nigerian businesses and foreign businesses and making it easier.
“Mr President set up a Presidential Business enabling environment also for greater ease of doing business and we are doing that concretely by setting up this portal.
“So, we have this digital online match making portal and it will give access and connectivity to various businesses and investors for verified Nigerian businesses and skill professionals.
“It leverages on the fact that we have over 100 missions across the world, so we are leveraging on that match making and get businesses to come into the country,” Onyeama added.
