The World Bank has disclosed that diaspora remittances to Nigeria in the year 2020 declined by 27.7 percent.
It said the impact of this was an estimated 12.5 per cent ($42 billion) decline in remittances to sub-saharan Africa in the year under review, as Nigeria accounts for 40 per cent of remittance flows to the region.
In a statement, it said “Excluding Nigeria, remittance flows to Sub-Saharan African increased by 2.3 percent.
“Remittance growth was reported in Zambia (37 percent), Mozambique (16 percent), Kenya (9 percent) and Ghana (5 percent).”
On remittance costs, the World Bank noted that “Africa remains the most expensive region to send money to, where sending $200 costs an average of 8.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020”.
It said despite the impact of COVID-19 on global economy, remittance flows remained resilient in 2020 as low and middle-income countries reached $540 billion — representing a 1.6 percent dip from $548 billion recorded in 2019.
“The decline in recorded remittance flows in 2020 was smaller than the one during the 2009 global financial crisis (4.8 percent),” the statement read.
“It was also far lower than the fall in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to low- and middle-income countries, which, excluding flows to China, fell by over 30 percent in 2020.
“As a result, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries surpassed the sum of FDI ($259 billion) and overseas development assistance ($179 billion) in 2020.”