Nigerians Abroad Remit $21Bn in 2014

The World Bank has disclosed that  Nigeria received a total of $21 billion from its citizens living abroad as home remittance in 2014 saying that growth of remittance is expected to slow this year.

This fact is contained in the latest issue of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released in Washington at the ongoing Spring Meetings of the IMF/ World Bank Group. 

It said that officially recorded remittances to the developing world are expected to reach $440 billion in 2015, an increase of 0.9 percent over the previous year.

Global remittances, including those to high income countries, are projected to grow by 0.4 percent to $586 billion.

It said “The top five migrant destination countries continue to be the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while the top five remittance recipient countries, in terms of value of remittances, continue to be India, China, Philippines, Mexico and Nigeria.

The release said “Nigeria alone accounts for around two-thirds of total remittance inflows to Sub Sahara Africa, but its remittances are estimated to have remained flat in 2014, at roughly $21 billion”.

It said that “growth of remittances to the Sub-Saharan Africa region is projected to slow to 0.9 percent in 2015, amounting to $33 billion.

The regional growth in remittances in 2014 largely reflected strong growth in Kenya 10.7 percent, South Africa 7.1 percent and Uganda 6.8 percent.

The level of remittance dependency varies across countries. Remittances in the Gambia, Lesotho, Liberia and Comoros equal about 20 percent of GDP in 2013, the latest available data. Remittance flows to the region are expected to pick up to $34 billion in 2016 and $36 billion in 2017.

In Somalia, concerns are rising about the impact on remittances due to “de-risking”– the closing of bank accounts of money transfer operators by correspondent banks fearing risks of money laundering and financial crime”