Remittance: Nigeria Leads Africa, Among Top 5 In The World

• Remittance: Nigeria Leads Africa, Among Top 5 In The World

Nigeria leads African nations in remittance and currently ranked top Five (5) in the world, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said.

The Central Bank’s Director, Statistics Department, Mr Mohammed Tumala, who represented the Governor at the opening session of a workshop on remittance, said remittance inflows aids foreign exchange earnings and help strengthens domestic finances in developing nations.

“Money sent home by migrant workers is among the major financial inflows to developing countries and in some cases it exceeds international aids and grants”.

“According to the World Bank, global remittances have risen gradually over the years to about $613 billion in 2017, of which $72 billion was received by African countries”.

The governor further said the government is working on strategies to boost remittance inflow into the country.

The strategies include the offering of $300 million diaspora bond by the Federal Government, the introduction of electronic Certificate of Capital Importation of Nigerians in foreign countries and the move by the government to become a member of the International Association of the Money Transfer Networks.

Speaking further, he made known that remittance compilation is done in the country through the assessment of banking records and also estimates of informal inflow; both methodology, being marked with many challenges.

“We think that a large chunk of migrants’ remittances pass through informal channels and are thus, unrecorded”.

“Nigeria is yet to conduct a household based remittances survey to provide scientific estimates of these informal inflows”.

“In addition, data from banking records also come with some discrepancies due to classification challenges on the part of reporting institutions”.

The challenges in the compilation of remittance inflow, have necessitated the decision to request for technical assistance that will help in data analysis and compilation of the inflows, the Central Bank Governor remarked.