President Bola Tinubu has announced the launch of the Expatriate Employment Levy, which aims to promote home-grown skill retention and technology domestication while also balancing job possibilities for Nigerians and experts.
On Tuesday, Tinubu spoke during the unveiling of the Expatriate Employment Levy manual in the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The president also emphasized that the plan should not be used as an obstruction or as a rod to discourage foreign investors.
“I declare my support for the Expatriate Employment Levy scheme, and I will continue to encourage the operators, practitioners of immigration matters, and expatriate quotas, but I emphasize: do not use it as a bottleneck; do not use it as an obstacle to frustrate potential investors,” Tinubu said.
He further stated that the EEL will reduce salary disparities between expatriates and Nigerian workers while enhancing job chances for skilled Nigerians in international enterprises operating in the country.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed this in a statement he signed Tuesday titled, ‘President Tinubu advocates greater home-grown skill retention and domestication of technologies as the pursuit of foreign direct investment intensifies.’
The President stated that he instituted the fee to increase revenue generation, naturalization, and indigenization.
He also anticipates the hiring of more qualified Nigerians by international corporations operating in the country.
“We seek a greater balancing of employment opportunities between Nigerians and expatriates and the closure of the wage gap between expatriates and the Nigerian labor force by making it more attractive to hire Nigerians.
“There will be clear lines of implementation and effective acceleration of the aims and objectives of this program. Officials in charge of immigration matters, expatriate quotas, and relevant stakeholders have to be effectively guided to make Nigeria the focus of the objective of this EEL.
“Therefore, it is my honor to launch the handbook of the Expatriate Employment Levy,” Tinubu said.
Tinubu also assured Nigerians that there is imminent light at the end of the tunnel as the country gradually turns the corner.
“We might be going through a difficult period now, but when you look at the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, the Federal Ministries of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, and the people manning the ship of this country, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, they have collaborated, and in the spirit of development and progress, we are glad that good effort is being made to re-engineer the finances of the country and make growth our hallmark,” he said.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, explained that the EEL project would be run on a public-private partnership model between the federal government of Nigeria, the Nigeria Immigration Service, which is the implementing agency, and a technical partner, EEL Projects Limited.
Tunji-Ojo said, “It is worthy to mention that the project is aligned with the eight-point agenda of Mr. President, especially on the issue of job security and economic growth. This project will, among other things, lead to technology domestication.
“The essence of this is to be sure that if you are bringing an expatriate to work in Nigeria, it should be a job that no Nigerian has the skill to do. That is the major objective of this particular initiative,” the minister added.
