Abia State Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) aimed at fostering reverse migration through Economic Development, Education and Poverty Alleviation.
The agreement, spearheaded by a delegation led by the United Nations IOM’s Chief of Mission, Ms. Paola Pace, would focus on implementation of a comprehensive roadmap to enhance diaspora engagement, attracting investments, improve educational outcomes, and support the State’s overall development agenda.
Speaking after signing the MoU, Governor Alex Otti emphasized that while the IOM is often associated with facilitating migration, Abia’s focus is on attracting people back to the State.
“I am very glad and excited to work with IOM and it is interesting sometimes when people envounter IOM their mind goes to supporting Migration, that is true but the migration that we are going to support is reverse Migration.
“We want people to come to Abia, so while we are encouraging Migration that is voluntary we also encourage the Reverse Migration”, he said.
The Governor who highlighted his administration’s efforts to create an investor-friendly environment, expressed optimism that the partnership would extend to enhancing education and healthcare, particularly through collaborations with donor agencies and development partners.
He emphasized that the key focus of his administration is Poverty Reduction hence the establishment of the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection to ensure the eradication of Poverty in Abia.
“We have taken a principle stand on pulling our people out of poverty as much as possible .
“When you see that we have a Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection, it is because we want as few people as possible to be in poverty.
“In fact if it is possible we don’t want to have our people living in poverty “, Governor Otti said.
The Governor reiterated his administrations commitment to partnerships that can drive job creation, reduce unemployment, and boost the state’s GDP.
“We need to create enabling environment for businesses to come and they will create jobs and increase the GDP of the State.
“This would reduce unemployment and reduce poverty”, the Governor said.
He assured the IOM delegation that the State Government would provide them necessary with an office space in Umuahia within next week to support their mission.
In his contribution, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Multilateral and Donor Agencies, Mr Odinakachi Emeh, highlighted the importance of the collaboration pointing out that it would help the State a strengthen diaspora engagement and create opportunities for people to invest in the State.
He noted that the MoU outlines initiatives to curb irregular Migration by creating an enabling environment for Abians to thrive.
“Part of what IOM is going to do for us is to help us strength diaspora engagement. What are our diasporans doing, how can they come back home, how are they goin to invest here?
“IOM is to going to help us again provide facilities and also support to employ our youths and women. Part of what they will help us to is to stop Migration.
“If people have something they are doing and there is enabling environment with infrastructure working they will not like to go out”, Mr Emeh explained.
He further disclosed that as part of the agreement, the IOM will also support the State by providing facilities and working closely with Donor Agencies to bring investments that align with the State’s development agenda.
“They will help us to partner with Donor Agencies because they are a UN body that also have sister agencies.
“So they are going to work with Donor Agencies to bring in some donors that would partner with the State to implement their policies and their developmental plans“, he said.
He described the allocation of a dedicated space for the IOM’s first office in the South East region of Nigeria as a “strong statement” in international development circles and thanked the Governor for engaging in strategic partnerships as well as creating an enabling environment for Abians to thrive.
Earlier in her speech, the leader of delegation and Chief of Mission, United Nations International Organisation for Migration, Ms Paola Pace said that the MoU signed would strengthen the diaspora engagements between Abia State Government and the IOM.
She said the UN IOM is in Abia to strengthen relationship through interaction with thematic Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as find ways of attracting donor agencies to the State.
“We also want Migration to be a choice and sensible because we see professionals in the Healthcare sector and other sectors leaving Nigeria for regions in Africa, ECOWAS and beyond.
“So that is our mandate and we also work on find solutions for people that migrate forcefully like in terms of internally displaced persons.
“We have developed this road map so tomorrow we meet with your team for a one day technical session to understand where Abia will like to go migration wise and how can we do something.
“So this MoU is really like strengthening our commitment to work with you for a more prosperous Abia.
“We are here to see how we can strengthen this cooperation and see how we can bring potential donors because we are not a donor. We are a technical partner in Nigeria but we also work with donors.
“So we will work with you to bring corporations to invest in Abia to help the people thrive and contribute to development of the State” Ms Pace assured.
