Remittances from Ghanaians in the diaspora accounted for 5.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2019.
This in monetary terms translates into some $3.7 billion.
Ghanaian migrants’ remittances in 2019 stood at US$3.7billion, which equals 5.5 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA- 2020) has shown.
According to the report on the flow of remittances to Ghana by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), currently, some 970,000 Ghanaians live and work outside the country, representing a rapidly-growing cohort of the Ghanaian populace with a significant contribution to the country’s GDP, and if managed properly could be of immense benefit to the economy.
“If migration is managed properly and channeled into the regular pathways, it holds numerous benefits of which knowledge transfer, transnational relations remittances and diaspora engagement form but a few. However, if taken irregularly, migration also poses a dangerous threat to lives and livelihoods of migrantism while at the same time putting strain on local communities,” DESA indicated.
Projects Manager, GIZ-International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Florian Braendli, reiterated that migrants contribute more to national development of their local economies than foreign assistance does, adding that migration happens on a daily basis, both internal and across borders, making it an inevitable part of human life; and as such must not be seen as a problem to solve but a reality to manage properly.
“Migration is a daily phenomenon, 272 million people are migrants outside their home country, therefore if we are to put them together as a country, they would be the fourth largest country by population in the world,” he stated.
“In 2019, migrants actually sent home as remittances $550 billion and that is four or five times more than all the official development assistance put together for middle- and lower-income countries. So, migrants have much more responsibility for the development of middle- and lower-income countries than foreign assistance,” Mr Braendli added.
Mr Braendli made the above assertions during the commemoration of the United Nations’ International Migrants Day earmarked for December 18 by the Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (GGC).
This year’s commemoration was themed “Reimagining human mobility: Tapping the potentials of returned migrants for national development” and used to remember what migrants have contributed to national development, as well as putting resources together to tackle the challenges associated with irregular migration.
Senior National Programme Coordinator-Programme Migration for Development (PME), GGC under the auspices of GIZ, David Tette, in his address stressed that GGC was initiated to leverage the development potential of migration; alleviate the risks associated with it; and work toward the creation of socio-economic prospects for local populations, especially returning migrants.
