Nigeria Lead as African Diaspora Remittances Inch Closer to $100 Billion

The Monetary transfers from citizens of African countries based abroad have been projected to hit $100 billion soon.

According to the latest data from the Migration and Development Brief of the World Bank, Egypt and Nigeria which are Africa’s two most populous countries led the ranking, with $32.3 billion and $20.9 billion transferred to them respectively.

Morocco came closely behind recording a remittance of $7.3 Billion in 2022.

According to the report, when compared to the previous year, remittance flows to Nigeria increased by 7.5% putting it ahead of other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Ghana ($4.7 billion), Kenya ($4.1 billion) and Senegal ($2.7 billion).

Since the World Bank started taking note of the remittances to African countries, it has been projected that the remittances to the African continent are set to surpass $100 billion for the first time.

During a recent forum organized by the African Development Bank on ways to harness the skills, wealth and dynamism of Africa’s 160-million-strong diaspora to its growth and development, the President of the bank, Dr Akinwumi Adesina noted the importance of the Africans in the diaspora to the economy of the continent.

“The African diaspora has become the largest financier of Africa! And it is not debt; it is 100% gifts or grants, a new form of concessional financing that is the key for livelihood security for millions of Africans,” he said.

Speaking further, Adesina noted that in 2010, remittances from the diaspora to Africa grew from $37 billion to $96 billion in 2021.

While noting the countries that have received the highest remittances in Africa, some other countries have been noted to be the source of such remittances like the US, UAE and Singapore.

The share of remittances emanating from the US, the United Kingdom and Singapore increased from 26% to over 36% between 2016 and 2021.

The share from the five Gulf Cooperation Council countries, GCC (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar) however, dropped from 54% to 28% during the same period. With a solo share of 23% of total remittances, the US surpassed the UAE as the top source country by 2020-21.