Niger, a Sahelian country located in the heart of West Africa, is a crossroads for migration routes. It serves as a bridge between sub-Saharan Africa, the Maghreb and Europe. Dialogue Migration met Professor Mounkaila Harouna, Researcher at the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey and also Coordinator of the Study and Research Group on Migration, Space and Society (GERMES) for an interview on the contribution of migration to the national economy.

D.M: Hello Professor, Niger is a country that plays a very important role in migration. It is both a country of departure, destination and transit for migrants. So how do you assess the migration issue in Niger?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna: When dealing with migration issues, you see that most often, people focus on the negative consequences. We, as researchers, avoid making this gap between positive and negative consequences on the one hand. We believe that population displacement must be fully appreciated and therefore its complexity must be understood. Migration is an important opportunity for Niger.

D.M: What opportunity does migration represent for Niger?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna : Today, when you look at the rural level, the role that these migrations play, particularly in household food security, clothing, and in meeting a number of essential needs at the household level. Because you know that we are in contexts where the agricultural production on which people base their hope, is not always there. Sometimes, when you have crops that are only enough to meet the food needs of the population, three months in the year, the other seven months, you have to resort to the market and to be able to make that use of the market, you have to have monetary resources. And these monetary resources, one of the main sources, is first and foremost migration.

D.M: What are the economic benefits of migrants’ remittances for Niger?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna : Today, if you go to Cotonou, you will see that you have Al-Izza (money transfer company under Nigerien law) there, you have Nita (also money transfer company under Nigerien law) there.  And the people who transfer money to Niger are the migrants.  And so today we have a fairly significant dependence on many Nigerien households vis-à-vis migration income. One wonders, without these revenues from migration, how people will do in the villages to ensure their food, to ensure their clothing, to pay the dowry, to meet a certain number of needs. So migration is an important economic opportunity for households.

D.M: Will these transfers benefit or strengthen the country’s economy? If so, how?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna : It is also an important opportunity for the State, for the regions.  Today, if you go to a region like Tahoua (Niger region located in the center-north of the country), not very long ago, I followed a presentation made by the Secretary General of the Tahoua Regional Council, which showed that Nigerien migrants have built a CSI (Integrated Health Center) worth more than 200 million CFA francs. So you have plenty of examples like that, where we have significant investments from the Nigerien diaspora who are in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, the United States, France, Nigeria, Benin, Togo as well as in the regions of departure. These are investments to build schools, classrooms, school fences, health facilities. But also hydraulic infrastructure, including cemented wells, modern wells, as well as boreholes.

We have a whole bunch of investments that these migrants are making in the regions of Niger’s cities. For example, in Tahoua in the Sabongari district, most of the construction was carried out by migrants who are outside. Today you have many investments that are made, including in Niamey, by migrants who are abroad.  You have shops today that are financed, especially by these migrants. And so we can consider that these migrations constitute an important opportunity for Niger.

Overall, remittances help reduce Niger’s balance of payments deficit, because they are foreign exchange inflows rather than foreign exchange outflows. And today, according to estimates, at least officially, remittances, when you take the statistics of the World Bank, it is about 1% of the country’s GDP. And that’s because it’s the formal transfer. Most of the transfers that are made by Nigeriens who are outside, are done informally, so it is difficult to quantify. This means that, if we take into account all these informal transfers, it can go beyond 3 or 4% of GDP.

We know that in many African countries, such as Cape Verde or Gambia, remittances represent more than 30% of GDP. It is wealth produced in those countries.

It is also said that remittances are more important than foreign direct investment and more important than official development assistance in our States. So it kind of shows the importance of transfer. 

And if we bring it back to Niger, what we see at the regional level, the investments that are made at the level of families, households, in villages, in regions, in departments, show that the resources that are transferred by migrants are resources that are very important in the field of education,  health, hydraulics, food. And then all these economic investments to strengthen the economic power of households, it’s really important.

We must not forget the financing of the pilgrimage to Mecca, socio-economic investments for example. There is a lot of money for the purchase, because most often people also invest in livestock, we buy animals. I think that these are economic opportunities that exist, for which we need these circulations. We need these migrations, and it would be absurd if there were policies that thwart the free movement of people in our area. We are in contexts where these are populations that have always lived in relation to the outside, and we cannot break that.

D.M: How does immigration contribute to Niger’s economy?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna: We must take into account immigration and even transit movements. When you look at immigration, we have more than 200,000 nationals from other countries, especially those from countries bordering Niger who are working. Some have had Nigerien nationality, because their immigration dates back to the colonial period and therefore they are also people who contribute to the economy, by doing business here, by working whether in international organizations, or in certain structures at the national level. So, these migrants also contribute to the economy of Niger, for example we have many very striking cases.

In the field of construction, young migrants from Togo or Benin play an important role. In all the major projects that have been done, you see how people come to sell their know-how in Niger. It is enriching for our country. If you also take immigration transit in Agadez, until there is the implementation of these policies (the law 2015-36 on the smuggling of migrants), transit in Agadez generates tens of billions of CFA francs per month, for the people who are responsible for transporting migrants, those who host them and for all activities that are dedicated to migration. Including catering, buying turbans, glasses, and everything necessary for that trip.

These are investments that are being made in Niger. In addition you also have the contribution of money transfer structures, at the level of banks, transfer agencies, all these communication structures. These are investments, it is money that is spent, and therefore these are economic opportunities for Niger.

D.M: So what is the share of internal migration in the economy? Especially since many young Nigeriens leave the villages for the big cities after the agricultural season?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna: If we look at these economic opportunities, we must see them from the angle of immigration and from that of internal migration, because you also have internal migration, which is very important. Especially from rural to urban areas, people come to work to get resources during the dry season. Then go back to their village, buy thousands of bags, corn, rice, and meet some household expenses. So all these are opportunities that exist, which make displacement, migration an important social phenomenon, which must be preserved, which must be well managed.

D.M: The free movement of people and goods is often put to the test in ECOWAS countries, do you think this situation can have an impact on the migration economy?

Prof. Mounkaila Harouna: We know that in terms of our space, we still have two or three community spaces that promote the free movement of free people. The area that is the first to do so is ECOWAS, for which there has been a protocol on the free movement of persons and goods since 1979, which should be carried out in three stages. A step of abolition of the visa right, there the visa is abolished in all countries of the ECOWAS area there is no problem.

The right of residence also and the right of establishment, which is the third step that Niger ratified in 2009, but which in reality is not applied. You have the CEN-SAD (Community of Sahelo-Saharan States), all these organizations promote the free movement of people and goods in our spaces. But the problem is that when we look at the reality of the circulation between our different states or within our different states, we see that there is a lot of hassle.

Unfortunately, the introduction of a number of policies that focus on security, on the suppression of population displacement, especially those considered to be irregular displacements, means that these practices are increasingly encouraged. For example  , the implementation of Law 2015-36 on the smuggling of migrants, rather encourages abuses vis-à-vis migrants. If you have constraints on this freedom of movement of people, naturally, it can affect the movement of goods as well. And so suddenly, it can have consequences for the economy.