The Federal Government on Thursday promised to provide hundreds of Nigerians returning from South Africa following rising incidents of xenophobic attacks in the country soft loans to be provided by the Bank of Industry (BOI) to support those interested in small trade and businesses.
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, gave this hint through a statement issued by her media aide, Gabriel Odu.
This is even as she stated further that in addition to providing the returnees transport fares to their destinations, government would also give them SIM cards with N40,000 worth of air time, plus 9GB of data valid for two months for ease of communication
Dabiri-Erewa was quoted as making the commitments on the arrival of the first batch of the Nigerian returnees totalling 187 persons at about 9.35 pm on Wednesday on-board an Air Peace flight.
The Diaspora Commission boss explained that amongst the first batch of 187 Nigerians evacuated from South Africa, over 30 were children while about 317 scheduled initially to return on the flight were delayed by South Africa’s immigration authorities for over 15 hours.
Odu stated: “Hon. Dabiri-Erewa told the returnees that apart from transport stipend to convey them to their various destinations, for ease of communication, they are to receive SIM cards with N40,000 worth of air time, plus 9GB of data valid for two months as well as a soft loan from the Bank of Industry to support those interested in small trade and businesses.”
The former federal legislator also disclosed that plans were being made to introduce a re-integration programme for the returnees, assuring that arrangements to airlift the second batch of Nigerians returns from South Africa would be finalized soon.
