Government to scrap Visa charges to Diasporans

http://www.monitor. co.ug/News/ National/ -/688334/ 833480/-/ wgovtk/-/

Kampala
The government plans to scrap visa fees it charges Ugandans in the Diaspora when coming back home.

At a two-day Diaspora Summit held in Kampala, State Minister for Internal Affairs Okello Oryem said: “The Immigration department will design special stickers and in that case you will not be charged visa fees when you come back home because you’re citizens.”

According to records from the Immigration Office, people who were formerly Ugandans are charged $400 (Shs760,000) as visa fee.

The scrapping of the visa fee is part of the government’s new strategy that will manage pertinent issues affecting Ugandans living in the Diaspora like harassment and their legitimacy to stay in the respective countries where they live.

“A fully-developed diaspora department will also help guide you on how to invest and succeed back home. In the past Ugandan embassies have been a no-go area for the Diaspora but this is going to change,” he added.

To further show its commitment towards improving the lives of Ugandans in the Diaspora, the government recently, through Parliament, passed the Dual Citizenship Bill into law. This law will ease movement of the Diaspora to come back home and invest.

One million mark
Over one million Ugandans work and live overseas and have tremendously contributed to economic development through remittances.

In 2007, remittances from the Diaspora community registered close to $1 billion (Shs1.9 trillion) up from $750 million registered the previous year.

This has been trimmed down to about $500 million because of the global economic meltdown which saw many lose jobs and others’ salaries slashed.

But these remittances have, however, contributed less in terms of investments as most of the money is channeled to relatives who have made little or no value from it. This is why Uganda Investment Authority has organised an annual Diaspora investment summit intended to lure Ugandans abroad to invest home.

The Executive Director UIA, Dr Maggie Kigozi, on Tuesday said; “The money you send to your relatives has made people to relax and fail to work. But if you start businesses and employ them they will learn how to work and this will in the end translate into economic development.”



For more news on migration, remittances, and development, please visit: http://diasporajourney.blogspot. com/ and http://www.remittan cesgateway. org /