Aglobal digital payments company, Worldremit has announced the launch of its new zero percent pricing for international transfers to Nigeria.
According to a statement released Thursday by the Fintech Company, the new lowered price allows customers to send more to family and friends in Nigeria with absolutely no fees and FX margins.
This major price drop forms part of new pricing restructure and represents the largest pricing reduction in terms of the number of corridors for the business, Worldremit said.
The new zero percent pricing is in line with Worldremit’s commitment to supporting remittance flows to Nigeria and helping the diaspora community to supplement and support family and friends back home.
”As a forward- thinking company, Worldremit continues to seek opportunities and innovative ways to keep people connected around the world while offering them a top-class fast, safe and simple way to send international remittances,” Gbenga Okejimi, Country Manager, Nigeria and Ghana, Worldremit said.
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According to Okejimi, Worldremit believes in helping its customers to access and enjoy the rewards of their hard work and ”this initiative will ensure they can access value even as COVID-19 has financially affected those in both in the diaspora and at home”.
Meanwhile, data analyzed from the October 2020 Brief of the World Bank’s Migration and Development report shows that Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) is the costliest region to send remittances.
The cost of sending money from abroad to SSA is almost two times higher than what it cost to transfer funds to any other part of the world.
While it cost an average of 8.5 percent to send, for example, $200 to SSA in Q3 2020, it cost an average of 5 percent and 7 percent to send the same amount to South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, respectively.
The increase in formal remittances channels coupled with the decrease in informal means of sending home money amid the COVID-19 pandemic is some of the factors cited by World Bank to be responsible for the high cost of remittances to SSA.
According to Sam Talukdar, Director of Pricing at Worldremit one of the goals of the Fintech Company is to accelerate financial inclusion by reducing transaction costs to Sub-saharan Africa, which remains the most expensive region for remittances.
”In the last 12 months, we have witnessed a strong uptick in new customers using our platform, which in turn has helped to drive down our overall costs. We are committed to making remittances more affordable, so we have shared our savings with our customers, allowing them to send more money for less,” Talukdar said.
Due to the impact of COVID-19, diaspora remittance flows into Nigeria will tumble by 25 percent this year as the pandemic drags on the economic crisis, deepening hardship for households that receive remittances, according to the World Bank.
In a recent webinar by the World Bank tagged “Nigeria in the time of COVID- 19, Rising to the challenge”, the institution said 1517 million Nigerians are living abroad who send home over $25 billion annually. 53 percent of this population resides in Europe and North America, where rising unemployment rates are already choking incomes, the Bank says.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult for migrants to remit money to Sub-saharan Africa using traditional or informal channels as most payments are still in cash and some money transfer operators are closed due to the o crisis,” Dilip Ratha, member of the Migration and remittances Uni of the Jobs Group in the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice said.
Meanwhile, Worldremit enables senders in 50 countries to send money via the app or website to recipients in over 150 countries, where they can choose from multiple payout methods including bank deposits, Mobile Money, mobile airtime top-up and cash pick-up.
To access the new prices, customers will need to visit the company’s website or download the Worldremit app from Google Play or the App Store and use the transfer calculator to see how much can be saved.
Existing customers will need to update the latest version of the app to benefit from the new prices. Customers will instantly benefit from the savings or can choose to include the savings to the funds of their loved ones.
On the sending side, Worldremit is 100% digital (cashless), increasing convenience and enhancing security. For those receiving money, the company offers a wide range of options including bank deposit, cash collection, mobile airtime top-up and mobile money.
Backed by Accel, TCV and Leapfrog – Worldremit’s headquarters are in London, the United Kingdom with a global presence in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.
