MIGRATION has been one of the biggest problems this generation has had to contend with over the years, but it is also true that it has brought about some of the notable benefits to both the sending and receiving countries.
Nations that receive people who migrate especially for jobs get to see an improvement in the skills in the labour market with even other lesser jobs being filled.
For a sending country, Mexico for example, the country receives more money in remittance from its citizens that migrate to the USA, with figures exceeding aid to that country by cooperating partners.
Migrants’ remittance to Mexico is estimated at US$22 billion.
So the call by Republican Vice-President Inonge Wina that Zambians in the Diaspora should come back home and invest in the country is a very welcome statement.
Although not coming for the first time, the re-emphasis shows just how important the matter is and should be taken seriously.
If Mexico’s remittance, which is money sent just to families back home to feed and meet the daily needs can be of such large proportions, what more investment through a deliberate policy?
The Vice-President said that Africa was a country that was being transformed and was attracting huge sums in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and it would be good that people living in the Diaspora became part of the beautiful phase of Africa’s transformation.
One of Africa’s biggest problems and one that has been identified as a bottleneck to development is the lack of infrastructure to meet the projected growth and this is one matter that needs to be addressed.
And Ms Wina says Zambia and the rest of Africa need to address pertinent issues like infrastructure, human capital development and good governance influence its strengths and benefit from its engagement with the rest of the world and unlock its latent potential.
There have been several attempts to develop, that included the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and many more with all these not bringing the needed result simply because the cooperating partners involved have shipped back all the profits, thereby stifling the local economy.
The externalising of the profits happening in Zambia and Africa as a whole should be a lesson to the people that the best place to invest is home and they should take a leaf from Mexicans and invest in the
country.
Zambia for one, has one of the most promising economies in Africa, posting growth that can only be beaten by oil-producing countries like Angola and Nigeria.
So it would be in the best interest of Zambians living out there to come and invest back home and fill the economic gap that the foreign investors have refused to fill over the years.
Zambians in the Diaspora need to make a difference and invest in their country.
The US$22 billion Mexico remittance shows the strength that lies within that country’s people, and a deliberate policy that could see Zambians get incentives for their investment like incubation period and some tax exceptions can bring the desired transformation.
After the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs), the United Nations switched to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) simply because economic development needs to be sustained for it to have any meaningful impact on the people.
Time has proved that depending on foreign aid or investment has only brought misery after a few years of economic joy and that is because of the areas that outsiders chose to invest in are not in the best
interest of the developing countries.
But a Zambian investing in Zambia means that areas of investment will be those that will bring long-lasting benefits and that calls for sustainability, which Zambia and the rest of the countries want to see.
Because of that, we join in calls for the people in the Diaspora to invest back home.