Nigeria’s Diasporan Remittances To Increase Over Rising Food Prices – World Bank

Nigeria’s Diaspora remittance inflow, according to the World Bank, will increase to $29bn in 2022 because of higher food prices and the continued adoption of official bank channels.

The lobal bank explained that migrants from the country are likely to send more money home to help with the hike in the prices of staples.

Prime Business Africa obtained this from the bank’s report titled, ‘Migration and Development Brief (May 2022): A War in a Pandemic: Implications of the Ukraine crisis and COVID-19 on the global governance of migration and remittance flows,’ report.

The report read that remittance flows to low and middle-income countries are expected to increase by 4.2 per cent to $630bn in 2022.

According to it, “With risks weighted to the downside, there are several factors that support a view for continued—though more moderate—7.1 per cent gain inflows to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2022.

“Momentum for the use of official channels in Nigeria should sustain an uptrend in the year, within flows reaching $21bn.

“Though economic activity is likely to ease in the United States and Europe, fundamentals remain positive for continued gains in remittance flows to the remainder of Africa, as the influence of ‘altruistic’ motivations that were demonstrated in Africa and South Asia during the peak pandemic years will likely carry over to the period of sharp increases in staple food prices.”

The World Bank said remittance inflow to Sub-Saharan Africa was $49bn in 2021, with Nigerian contributing $19.2bn to the total inflow.

It said the use of informal channels to transfer money to the region caused a 28 per cent reduction in inflows in 2020.

It added: “In 2022, remittance inflows are projected to grow by 7.1 per cent driven by continued shift to the use of official channels in Nigeria and higher food prices – migrants will likely send more money to home countries that are now suffering extraordinary increases in prices of staples.”

The global bank stated that the Naira-4-Dollar policy, which was an attempt to return remittance to formal channels, of the Central Bank of Nigeria helped boost inflows by 11.2 per cent in 2021.

It added that the stabilisation of the naira against the dollar within a range of 410-415 per dollar over the last year also contributed to the pickup in recorded inflows.

It further stated that the increased stability of the Naira and increased use of the e-Naira would help boost the nation’s chances of achieving $21bn in remittance for 2022.