The Secretary General of The Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States,(OACPS), Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti says the Diaspora Communities are the greatest off-shore assets and critical force in achieving sustainable development in their countries of origin.
Pinto-Chikoti stated this at the second edition of the Global African Diaspora Symposium (GADS), in Abuja.
He explained that the organization is geared towards working together to create the right framework to facilitate the positive contributions of the Diaspora in the areas of Climate Change and Science and Technology among others.
The OACPS Secretary-General believes that the global African diaspora can be counted upon through their talents and expertise to harness the power of science, technology and innovation to address multidimensional vulnerabilities and achieve social development goals.
He concluded by saying that the diaspora movement is secular and in the context of the OACPS, should be understood in its broadest sense to encompass both historical diaspora and recent migration, including those involving nationals of all ACP states spread across all continents.
Earlier on, the Director-General Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) Amb. Rabiu Dagari stated that the symposium seeks to proffer solutions to pressing issues that are posing diverse challenges to Africa’s development and to form necessary partnerships to achieve successful results.
He stressed that it is pertinent for Nigeria and Africa to acknowledge the importance of the African Diaspora with their immense skills, resources, global exposure and talents to the development of Africa.
Amb Dagari maintains that the value of remittances from the African Diaspora rose from $37 billion dollars in 2010 to $87 billion dollars in 2019, reaching $95.6 billion dollars by 2021.
He further stated that Egypt and Nigeria are among the top ten remittance recipient countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Chairman Local Organizing Committee, GADS 2023, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, pointed out that the goal of developing the African continent may not be achievable without the involvement of the sixth region of the African Union which is the African Diaspora.
Mrs Odusote is of the view that this year’s symposium is simply to foster new connections for a stronger global African diaspora partnership and to commemorate the international day for people of African descent which took place in September 2015, in Accra, and Cape Coast, Ghana.
She added that this symposium is designed to address up to five implementable solutions to Africa’s most pressing issues. It also seeks to create an interface between Africa and its diaspora for the purpose of maximizing partnership and collaboration.
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