Direct Expatriate Nationals Investment (DENI)

The Direct Expatriate Nationals Investment (DENI) initiative aims to securitize diasporan cash remittances. In a presentation at the Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries on Migrant Remittances Fred Kwoba the author of DENI asserted that:

"...Back in 1990 when international community first recognized this phenomenon of remittances, they frowned on it and dismissed it as inconsequential in the development of Africa. But Africans in the Diaspora never lost faith in the remittance lifeline. We kept sending money home even if there was a civil war or no government as Somalia and even if there in no bank, we still send money home. Such is our determination to send money home. Why? Because we have a moral responsibility and duty to support our people. And now the international community has finally come round not only to recognize this phenomenon but to fully embrace it as critical in the survival of our communities...We have developed a program called DENI that was designed to bring Africans together to pool their resources for large-scale investments in their home country. This will be done country-by-country, meaning Beninese will have their own DENI Program for Benin, Ghanaians will have their own DENI Program for Ghana, Malians will have their own DENI Program for Mali, Nigerians will have their own DENI Program for Nigeria and so on down the line until we get to Zimbabweans with their own DENI Program for Zimbabwe...DENI says we take a country (such as any that I’ve mentioned above) and target (say) 100,000 nationals (both at home and abroad) and encourage them to invest $1000 a piece in this initiative for their country. That would immediately raise $100,000,000 in cash for the government – cash on the table that is not a loan and is not a grant. No strings attached. No conditionalities. DENI is designed to be totally owned by the Government and its people. For a government that has received a debt forgiveness of (say) $500,000,000, DENI suggests that that amount of forgiveness be passed on to the people through this ingenuous conversion for purposes of poverty reduction. The government gets $100mn in cash from its nationals upfront that is not a loan and is not a grant..."