Africans overseas send $60 billion back home in 2012

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Monday disclosed that Africans in diaspora remitted a total of $60 billion to the continent in 2012.

The World Bank had ranked Nigeria as the fifth among the top recipients of diaspora remittances while India is leading the pack of countries whose citizens send huge returns home.

Regional Adviser of the organisation for Africa, Mr. Charles Kwenin, disclosed this at the National Diaspora Policy Advocacy workshop held at the National Assembly, Abuja.

Kwenin, who made a case for the formulation of a diaspora policy in different countries across Africa said such a policy would provide the framework in addressing the needs of Africans living in foreign countries.

He said that given the growing influence and relevance of diaspora issues globally, Africa had no choice but to explore the opportunities available in it.

Speaker House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, who declared the workshop open hailed Nigerians in diaspora over their contributions towards the economic development of the country.

Tambuwal , represented by the House Leader, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, said Nigerians in diaspora have helped in no small measure in uplifting the living standards of their brethren at home.

He said that Nigerians in diaspora could play pivotal roles in government's effort to advance the social and economic development in the country.

The House, Tambuwal said, was working on ways to encourage Nigerians in the diaspora to always remember home and contribute more meaningfully to national development.

He said that in addition to monetary remittances, Nigerians living abroad would be encouraged to invest in emerging industries in Nigeria. He charged the House Committee on diaspora to ensure the protection of Nigerians living abroad as diaspora issues had become and would continue to assume an important place in the country's political agenda.

Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said that since the inception of the committee, it had intervened in several diaspora issues.

She advocated the institution of a National Policy on Diaspora as well as a National Commission for Diaspora Affairs adding that with such structures in place, Africa could surpass India in diaspora matters.

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U.S. reduced oil import affects Nigeria's oil export

The Nigerian oil industry faces a difficult 2013 as shale oil in the US takes an increasing share of the north American market. Togo-based Ecobank has said that Nigerian crude oil exports to the US could fall by over a quarter this year, from 800,000bpd in 2012 to as low as 580,000bpd in 2013.

Already in January there were signs of stress. Crude oil shipments from Nigeria have, Ecobank says, declined from 75 cargoes in January to a scheduled 59 in March, and there is an unsold overhang of 21 out of 65 February cargoes. This is an unusual situation given that the cargoes contain Nigeria's premium grades of sweet and light crude, which are usually very much in demand.

As Rolake Akinkugbe, head of energy research at Ecobank, explained to beyondbrics, refiners in Asia are increasingly capable of handling larger volumes of sour crude oil grades, while European refiners are facing pressures on their margins and seeking lower-priced inputs. Neither are looking as favourably upon Nigerian oil grades, which are priced at a substantial premium to the sour grades from the Middle East.

"Nigeria and other oil producers in west Africa had a window of opportunity during the Libya crisis when their [Libya's] supply was taken off the market", she said. "There was a great switch to African crude grades, which partly accounts for their pricing premium at the moment."

Libyan oil is now coming back online, but the major problem for Nigerian crude is the soaring volumes of shale oil being produced in the US. The US is still Nigeria's biggest oil export destination, but the relationship can no longer be taken for granted.

"A decade ago" says Akinkugbe, "the industry thought that by 2015 around 25 per cent of America's oil would come from west Africa, but now there's a dramatic change in that picture. African governments need to look for alternatives destinations."

In recent years, she says, producers in west Africa and the Gulf of Guinea have exported around 2mbpd of oil to north America, but this has fallen to around 1mbpd, with the slump in Nigerian exports to the US being particularly severe due to the steeper price of its crude. Having accounted for 12 per cent of US crude imports in 2011, Nigeria's share fell to 6 per cent in 2012.

Nigerian oil exports to the US, Ecobank says, have already slumped to 700,000bpd from the 2012 average of 800,000bpd, and that could fall as far as 580,000bpd in 2013 as US domestic oil producers add an expected 800,000bpd of new capacity.

As if the stiff new competition from Texas and North Dakota were not enough, Nigeria's oil industry also has sizeable domestic problems too. Theft and pipeline vandalism cost it $7bn in 2012 according to the International Energy Agency, and uncertainty surrounding the long-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill is causing nervous oil companies to hold back investment.

Oil and gas make up 94 per cent of Nigerian exports, and so even a small slackening of demand for its hydrocarbons spells big trouble. No wonder senior figures in the Nigerian government seem to have been talking so much about economic diversification recently.

Daily Trust

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