Diagonal realizability in the Nonnegative Inverse Eigenvalue Problem

We show that if a list of nonzero complex numbers $\sigma=(\lambda_1,\lambda_2,\ldots,\lambda_k)$ is the nonzero spectrum of a diagonalizable nonnegative matrix, then $\sigma$ is the nonzero spectrum of a diagonalizable nonnegative matrix of order $k+k^2.$