Adnan Adams Mohammed
Ghana recorded US$4.6 billion in remittance receipts in 2023, a marginal decrease from the 2022 figure of US$4.7 billion.
Although, Ghana’s remittances receipts fell slightly last year, they were still the second highest in Africa, according to the World Bank’s 2024 Migration Development Report.
Having the largest population size on the continent, Nigeria recorded US$19.5 billion in remittance flows to top the list while Kenya ranked third with US$4.2 billion, Zimbabwe fourth with US$3.1 billion, and Senegal fifth with US$2.9 billion in remittance inflows. The World Bank in its report highlighted the increasing importance of remittances.
“Remittances have become the most important foreign exchange earner in several countries,” the World Bank stated emphasizing that, “in Kenya, remittances now exceed the country’s key exports, including tourism, tea, coffee, and horticulture.”
The Bretton Woods institution also noted that remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa were nearly 1.5 times the size of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows in 2023 and demonstrated greater stability.
FDI flows to the region reached US$38.6 billion in 2023 driven primarily by greenfield project announcements in Kenya and Nigeria according to a UNCTAD 2024 report.
Countries heavily dependent on remittance receipts as contributors to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) include the Gambia, Lesotho, Comoros, Liberia, and Cabo Verde, with remittances contributing more than a fifth of GDP in the first three countries.
The report further detailed regional growth in remittances for 2023, largely driven by strong increases in Uganda (up 15% to US$1.4 billion), Rwanda (up 9.3% to US$0.5 billion), Kenya (up 2.6% to US$4.2 billion), and Tanzania (up 4% to US$0.7 billion).
However, remittances to Nigeria, which account for approximately 35% of total remittance inflows to the region, decreased by 2.9% to US$19.5 billion.
Within the period under study, the peak and trough of personal remittances received in Ghana were reached in 2015 and 2010 with US$5.0 billion and US$140 million, respectively.
The Economic Times defines remittances as the transfer of funds between parties as a bill, an invoice, or even a gift. However, “remittance” refers more broadly to the funds migrants send to their relatives in their home country while working and living abroad. These are also referred to as worker or migrant transfers.
Remittance means “send back.” In terms of money, a remittance is the sending of money to a recipient who lives abroad. Most families living in slow-growing economies and developing nations rely heavily on these remittances as their main source of income.
Foreign workers who send a portion of their pay to their families back home frequently do this.
Most money transfers are now done electronically.
