Nigeria received a record $21 billion remittance from its migrants abroad just in 2012, placing the country as one of the top recipients of officially recorded remittance for last year.
According to the World Bank, the developing countries which received high remittances in 2012 are India, $69 billion; China, $60 billion; the Philippines, $24 billion; Mexico, $23 billion, and Nigeria and Egypt, $21 billion each. Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Lebanon, the World Bank noted in its newly released projections on remittance flows at the weekend.
But as a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances in 2011 were Tajikistan, 47 percent; Liberia, 31 percent; Kyrgyz Republic, 29 percent; Lesotho, 27 percent; Moldova, 23 percent; Nepal, 22 percent and Samoa, 21 percent.
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As contained in the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, issued weekend at the ongoing spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), recorded remittance flows to developing countries grew by 5.3 percent to reach an estimated $401 billion in 2012.
The World Bank projects that remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by an annual average of 8.8 percent for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in 2015.
But given that many migrants send money and goods through people or informal channels, the true size of remittances are much larger than these official figures.
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