The World Bank has said that Ghana places 2nd in remittance flows to Africa in 2023.
In its 2024 Migration Development Report, the World Bank said that Kenya, Zimbabwe and Senegal came 3rd, 4th and 5th, with inflows of $4.2 billion, $3.1 billion and $2.9 billion respectively.
According to the report remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa were nearly 1.5 times the size of Foreign Direct Inflows in 2023, and relatively more stable.
It stated that the FDI flows to the region reached $38.6 billion in 2023, driven primarily by greenfield project announcements in Kenya and Nigeria (UNCTAD 2024).
The World Bank said remittances have become the most important foreign exchange earner in several countries.
“For example, in Kenya, remittances are larger than the country’s key exports, including tourism, tea, coffee, and horticulture,” the report by the Ghanaian Times quoted the World Bank as saying.
The report added that countries more dependent on receipts as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product include the Gambia, Lesotho, Comoros, Liberia, and Cabo Verde, with remittances contributing over a fifth of GDP in the first three countries.
The report also said that regional growth in remittances in 2023 was largely driven by strong remittance growth in Uganda (15 per cent to $1.4 billion), Rwanda (9.3 per cent to $0.5 billion), Kenya (2.6 per cent to $4.2 billion), and Tanzania (4 per cent to $0.7 billion).
