The Senate at its plenary session of Tuesday, 31 October 2017 mandated its Committees on Interior and Employment, Labour and Productivity to investigate all allegations on the abuse of expatriate quota by foreign multinationals.
Presenting the motion, Sen. Andy Uba (APC: Anambra), expressed concerns over non-compliance with the Immigration Act, 2004 which mandates the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) to grant expatriate quota to companies seeking to employ expatriates in Nigeria, and further mandates multinational companies to apply and receive approval from its Board before making any application for expatriate’s quota approvals to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs or any other agency of the government .
Sen. Uba explained that such approvals are subject to renewal after 2-3 years; limited to four expatriates in the first instance, and granted where there were no local experts available to occupy the vacant position. However, according to him, recent reports reveal that these provisions are not complied with and described it as “a gross abuse of our laws” and disregard of government efforts in providing employment. His adopted motion revealed that multinational companies have over 300 expatriates in positions that could be held by Nigerians.
