The World Bank has said that the number of international migrants from Nigeria had increased threefold from 1990 till 2019.

The bank said the increase is from 446,806 in 1990 to 1,438,331 in 2019.

The bank said this in a report titled ‘Of roads less travelled: Assessing the potential for migration to provide overseas jobs for Nigeria’s youth.’

The report said notwithstanding this trend, the share of international migrants in proportion to Nigeria’s population had been considerably constant, with a slight increase from 0.5 percent in 1990 to 0.7 percent in 2019.

“An important trend that is observed in the data is the rise in the number of refugees and asylum seekers from Nigeria. The share of refugees and asylum seekers from Nigeria has increased drastically in the last decade, growing from 27,557 in 2010 to 408,078 in 2019,” it said.

The bank noted that although the country seemed to be reaping dividends from the success of its citizens in the diaspora, which contributed five percent of its Gross Domestic Product in 2019, “the narrative around international migration to the discourse on international migration is worrisome.”