Remittances to Nigeria hit $20.8 billion in 2015 – World Bank

Nigerians living abroad sent home $20.8 billion in 2015, by far the largest volume of remittances to any country in Africa and the sixth largest in the world.

This is according to the World Bank’s annual migration and remittances Factbook 2016, one of the most authoritative sources on the subject, which was released on Monday.

The World Bank’s 2016 report presents the most important data behind the stories of international
migration and remittances, including important updates for Nigeria.

“The World Bank’s latest report shows that more than ever, we live in world of mobile and connected people whose financial ties extend across the planet. At WorldRemit we see the technological infrastructure evolving to meet these changing demands – in particular the convergence of mobile connectivity, instant messaging and international money transfers,” Alix Murphy, Senior Mobile Analyst at WorldRemit, said.

“At WorldRemit, we process tens of thousands of international money transfers to Nigeria every month, sent by Nigerians in the diaspora using our mobile app or online. It is technology like this which is helping to bring down the costs of remittances and transform the lives of Nigerians everywhere.”

Despite being the biggest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria’s financial system is still deeply fragmented, making sending and receiving money very challenging for ordinary Nigerians.

Fifty-six percent of Nigerians are unbanked, so offering a variety of pay-out options, including direct to bank account and instant cash pick-up, is extremely important for reaching everyone in society.

The United States is the biggest remittance sending country to Nigeria, followed by the United Kingdom. Nigerians will receive $5.7 billion in remittances sent from friends and family members in the US and $3.7 billion from the UK in 2015.

Nigeria is also the third largest destination country for migrants from other African nations.

Data from the report shows that a quarter of a billion people around the world are migrants, and over $600 billion in remittances are sent annually.

The report also showed that in 2015 the number of international migrants surpassed 250 million globally.

International migrants now represent more than 3.4 percent of the world’s population with South-South migration now larger than South-North migration.

Over 38 percent of international migrants have migrated from developing countries to other developing countries, while international remittances to developing countries reached over $441 billion in 2015, more than foreign direct investment and three times more than official aid flows.

According to the report, remittances constitute more than 10 percent of GDP for 25 countries.
International remittances have been growing steadily and remain stable, even during episodes of financial volatility.

The average global cost of sending remittances fell to 7.37 percent, still far higher than global targets.
Sub-Saharan Africa is still the most expensive region to send money to at 9.53 percent.

However there is an opportunity to address that as online remittance products are the cheapest way to send money at 5.57 percent.

Account-to-account transfers via commercial banks remain the most expensive (11.1%), followed by agent-based money transfer operators (6.2%) and post offices (5.9%).