Remittances to Ghana surge by 25% in 2021 – World Bank
Remittances to Ghana, the World Bank asserts increased by 25 percentage points in 2021.
The increase, the World Bank notes was due to the recovery of the global economy.
Remittances to Ghana in 2020, the Bretton Wood Institution earlier noted was $3.6bn, an increase of some 5 percentage points from the remittance inflows recorded for the year 2019.
Given the remittance amount realised in 2020 and the stated percentage increment, NorvanReports believes that remittances to Ghana increased by some $900m in 2021, therefore putting total remittances to Ghana in 2022 at $4.5bn.
On the back of the World Bank’s assertion, Fitch Solutions in its assessment report on Ghana’s Current Account Deficit for 2022, stated that it expects remittances to Ghana to continue its upward trend this year.
“The World Bank estimates that foreign remittances to Ghana increased by 25.0% in 2021, as the global economy recovered, and we expect this trend to continue in 2022 as developed market growth continues, and as Ghanaians continue to move to developed markets as a result of the reopening of borders,” Fitch Solutions noted.
According to the research agency, Ghana’s Current Account deficit is expected to widen from an estimated 26.% of GDP in 2021 to 2.9% of GDP in 2022, partially moderated by the anticipated increase in remittances for 2022.
World Bank forecasts 2.2% expansion in remittances to SSA in 2022
The World Bank is forecasting a 2.6 and 2.2 percentage points growth in remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
The projection by the Bretton Wood Institution follows the string resilience witnessed in remittance flows to Africa and around the world despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy.
Remittance flows around the world, according to the World Bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief, registered a smaller decline than previously projected.
The Migration and Development Brief, asserts that remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries for instance, reached $540 billion in 2020, just 1.6 percent below the 2019 total figure of $548 billion.
The smaller than projected decline in remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries were due to migrants’ desire to help their families, fiscal stimulus that resulted in better-than-expected economic conditions in host countries, a shift in flows from cash to digital and from informal to formal channels, and cyclical movements in oil prices and currency exchange rates.
On the back of the resilience shown in 2020, the World Bank has asserted that remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to increase by 2.6 percent per year, to $553 billion in 2021 and by 2.2 percent to $565 billion in 2022.
In the case of Ghana, remittance flows to the county according to the World Bank, increased slightly to $3.6 billion last year despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The World Bank’s notes that the $3.6 billion remittances recorded for 2020, represent a 5 percentage points increment to that of remittance inflows recorded for 2019.
In the Sub-Saharan Africa region, Ghana was ranked second behind Nigeria in remittance inflows for last year despite a 27.7 percentage points decline in remittance inflows to Nigeria.
Nigeria, according to the World Bank accounted for 40 percent of total remittances to the region.
