At least 28,358 Nigerians received invitations to apply for Canadian permanent residency from 2015 to 2021.
This is according to a Saturday PUNCH analysis of Express Entry annual reports issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for the years under review.
Punch reports that the year-end reports overview all EE process stages from profile submissions, invitations to apply, applications and admissions.
According to the report, Nigeria rose from seventh to the second most common country of citizenship of applicants who received an ITA from the Canadian authority in the four years spanning 2015 to 2019.
Within that period, the number of Nigerians who received ITAs rose by a whopping 889 per cent.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Canadian PR invitations to Nigerians rose by 10 per cent—from 5,882 to 6,550.
However, that number dropped by 52 per cent in the preceding year.
The breakdown showed that 609, 1041, 5129 and 6,024 ITAs were issued in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively.
While 5882, 6550 and 3123 invitations were issued in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively.
In 2020, the West African state ranked 3rd globally, behind India and China.
In 2021, however, more South Koreans received ITAs than Nigerians, albeit by a small margin of seven.
