By Agency Reporter

Wednesday, 10 Nov 2010

Nigeria is the top remittance recipient in Africa, accounting for an estimated $10bn in 2010, a report by the World Bank has said.

This year‘s flows represent a slight increase over the previous year, when migrants sent home $9.6bn.

The report further said remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa would reach $21.5bn this year after a small decrease in 2009 due to the global financial crisis. According to Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011, a World Bank publication that tracks documented private transfers of funds and migratory patterns around the world, Africa-bound flows fell by about four per cent between 2008 and 2009. This marks the first decrease since 1995.

”We estimate that recovery will continue over the next two years, with remittance flows to the continent possibly reaching about US$24bn by 2012,” said Manager of the Migration and Remittances unit at the World Bank, Dilip Ratha.

Ratha cautioned that these numbers were gross underestimates, because millions of Africans relied on informal channels to send money home.

Worldwide, remittance flows are expected to reach $440bn by end-2010, up from $416bn in 2009. About three-quarters of these funds, or $325bn, will go to developing countries. The World Bank estimated that flows to developing countries as a whole would rise further over the next two years, possibly exceeding $370bn by 2012.

”Remittances are a critical lifeline for families and entire communities across Africa, especially in the aftermath of the global crisis,” Ratha said. ”The fact that remittances are so large, come in foreign currency, and go directly to households, means that these transfers have a significant impact on poverty reduction, funding for housing and education, basic essential needs, and even business investments.”

According to the report, there is a pressing need to make it easier and cheaper to send and receive remittances in Africa. “The average cost of sending money to Africa is more than 10 per cent, the highest among all the regions. The cost of sending money within Africa is even higher,” the report said.

Other top recipients include Sudan ($3.2bn), Kenya ($1.8bn), Senegal ($1.2bn), South Africa ($1.bn), Uganda ($0.8bn), Lesotho ($0.5bn), Ethiopia ($387m), Mali ($385m), and Togo ($302m).

As a share of gross domestic product, the top recipients in 2009 were: Lesotho (25 per cent), Togo (10 per cent), Cape Verde (nine per cent), Guinea-Bissau (nine per cent), Senegal (nine per cent), Gambia (eight per cent), Liberia (six per cent), Sudan (six per cent), Nigeria (six per cent), and Kenya (five per cent).

The book estimated that nearly 22 million Sub-Saharan Africans had left the continent. Africa also has a higher intra-regional migration rate than the rest of the developing world, with three out of four African migrants living in another country in Sub-Saharan Africa.

In general, islands and fragile or conflict-afflicted states have the highest rates of skilled emigrants. Nationals who attended university and left their country the most are from Cape Verde (68 per cent), Gambia (63 per cent), Mauritius (56 per cent), Seychelles (56 per cent), Sierra Leone (53 per cent), Ghana (47 per cent), Mozambique (45 per cent), Liberia (45 per cent), Kenya (38 percent), and Uganda (36 percent).

Source: Punch