The Federal Government is set to introduce a new policy on expatriate quotas, aiming to enhance employment opportunities for Nigerians.
The focus will be on foreign, joint venture, and indigenous companies employing expatriates, particularly in sectors such as construction, oil and gas, telecoms, manufacturing, and hospitality.
These companies are expected to integrate Nigerian professionals into their workforce, ensuring that qualified individuals secure employment within the framework of the expatriate quota-enabled opportunities.
The Ministry of Interior, in collaboration with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), will unveil the comprehensive details of this policy to the public in approximately two weeks.
The implementation of the policy is reinforced by a robust private partnership component, guaranteeing a smooth execution of the initiative. Importantly, the entire process, from the initiation of the policy to subsequent stages, is anticipated to incur no cost for the federal government, as clarified by an official from the ministry.
It’s worth noting that this policy specifically targets the over 150,000 expatriates currently employed in the country, signaling a strategic move to optimize employment opportunities for the Nigerian workforce.
The official added that “as the number grows over time, they will be accommodated in the revenue-generation net.”
“While keeping close to his chest specific details of the forthcoming policy, he said the projection was that Nigeria, in the next twenty years, would have been well positioned to consistently attract into her revenue kitty about $1.5 billion annually from expatriates working in the country.
This revenue inflow is apart from the Personal Income Tax prescribed by the Personal Income Tax Act, PITA, cap P8 LFN, 2007, as amended, which forms the legal basis for taxation of employment income, including those earned by expatriates working in Nigeria.
The source further disclosed that the revenue could be more in the event that the companies failed to absorb qualified Nigerians into the particular jobs allotted to them (citizens).
Such defaulting companies, it was gathered, would be required to pay some prescribed levy in penalties.
”The move by government to secure Nigerian workers’ slots in the applicable companies is to discourage expatriates from doing jobs for which Nigerians are qualified and thus help to stem the tide of brain or talent drain”, which has in recent times, partly manifested in the lingering exodus of Nigerians to foreign countries, a situation, which is popularly referred to as Japa, meaning take off.
”The other justification for the policy measure is the economic imperative to open more revenue streams and expand the revenue base of the country from which funding could be provided to develop the nation’s infrastructure projects which could have competed for the nation’s otherwise meagre resources,” the source said.
