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.
