World Bank says Nigeria’s diaspora remittances to decline 25% in 2020 on COVID

Diaspora remittance flows into Nigeria will tumble by 25% this year as the coronavirus pandemic drags on the economic crisis, deepening hardship for households that receive remittances, according to the World Bank.

In a recent webinar by the World Bank tagged “Nigeria in the time of COVID- 19, Rising to the challenge”, the institution said there are 1517 million Nigerians living abroad who send home over $25 billion dollar annually.

53 percent of this population reside in Europe and North America, where rising unemployment rates are already choking incomes, the Bank says.

With most advanced countries already in recession being dragged by the coronavirus pandemic, it will become more difficult for Nigerians in diaspora to send money home.

“Remittances are a vital source of income for developing countries. The ongoing economic recession caused by COVID-19 is taking a severe toll on the ability to send money home and makes it all the more vital that we shorten the time to recovery for advanced economies,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.

Global remittances were projected to dip sharply by about 20 per cent in 2020, said the World Bank.

According to the World bank, the fall in remittances will affect household consumption as 1 in 2 of Nigerians live in households that receive remittances.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria received $17.57 billion diaspora remittances in 2019, up by 56.4 percent from $11.23 billion in 2018.

“Diaspora remittances into the country could fall to $17 billion in 2020, a 32 per cent drop from the $25 billion inflows recorded in 2019”, Bismarck Rewane, chief executive officer, Financial Derivatives said.

On the average, remittances received per household is $224 or N84,741 and over 80 percent of the received remittances goes to consumption, the Bureau noted.