By KENNEDY MUPESNI –
INCLUSION of the dual citizenship clause in the newly-amended republican Constitution will attract investments and skills transfer from the Diaspora, the Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC) has observed.
In an interview in Lusaka yesterday, head of monitoring and evaluation Salim Kaunda said PMRC was encouraged that Government had taken a major step in the Diaspora engagement.
“A few years ago we undertook a research which was looking at how the country can tap potential of the Diaspora and one of our recommendations was the need to have a dual nationality clause,” Mr Kaunda said.
He said now that the country had moved a step further to engage Zambian nationals abroad, the onus was on stakeholders such as the ministries of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Tourism and Foreign Affairs, as well as embassies to develop a database for the Diaspora.
Mr Kaunda said doing so would help the Government know which national has certain skills and expertise as well as the area of investment that  they might be interested in.
He said countries that had formulated robust Diaspora engagement policies were getting a lot of revenue from remittances.
Mr Kaunda cited countries like Kenya and Nigeria which he said receive over US$1.758 billion and $10.045 billion, respectively, as Diaspora remittances after the respective countries formulated policies to attract people in the Diaspora.
Before putting in place such policies, Kenya and Nigeria used to receive $538 million and $1.063 billion, respectively.
“There is need to introduce Diaspora offices in the missions abroad to orchestrate  development and implementation of initiatives which are aimed at unlocking Zambia’s Diaspora and establish a ‘Zambians in the Diaspora database’  to offer information  and joint initiative opportunities,” he said.