Remittances from Ghanaians living abroad to Ghana increased by 7.3 percent to US$3.8 billion in 2018.<\/p>\n
Remittances to Sub-Saharan African countries in 2018 contributed substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of these nations.<\/p>\n
Transfers grew by almost 10 per cent to US$46 billion, according to the World Bank\u2019s latest Migration and Development Brief.<\/p>\n
Ghana was among the top 10 beneficiaries in Africa which also included Comoros US$14 million, forming 19.1 per cent of GDP; Gambia (US$245million, 15.3 per cent); Lesotho (US$438 million, 13.7 per cent); Cape Verde ($243 million, 12.3 per cent); Liberia (US$387 million, 12 per cent); Zimbabwe (US$1.8 billion, 9.6 per cent); Senegal (US$2.2 billion, 9.1 per cent); Togo (US$452 million, 8.5 per cent); and Nigeria (US$24.3 billion, 6.1 per cent).<\/p>\n
The Bank estimates that officially recorded annual remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached US$529 billion last year, an increase of 9.6 per cent over the previous record high of US$483 billion in 2017.<\/p>\n
Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, reached US$689 billion in 2018, up from US$633 billion in 2017.<\/p>\n
But the cost of sending money to Africa remained at a high 10 per cent, while the global average cost of sending US$200 was around seven per cent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the World Bank\u2019s Remittance Prices Worldwide database.<\/p>\n
Reducing remittance costs to three per cent by 2030 globally is one target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n
Banks were the most expensive for sending money abroad, charging an average fee of 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Brief.<\/p>\n
The closure of bank accounts of some remittance service providers by banks\u2019 de-risking policy, whereby the perceived financial benefit of operating an account outweighs the benefits, drove up the cost of transfers, the Brief noted.<\/p>\n
Post offices were the next most expensive, at over seven per cent because remittance fees included a premium where national post offices have an exclusive partnership with a money transfer operator.<\/p>\n
This premium was on average 1.5 per cent worldwide and as high as four per cent in some countries in the last quarter of 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemittances are on track to become the largest source of external financing in developing countries,\u201d said Dilip Ratha, lead author of the Brief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe high costs of money transfers reduce the benefits of migration.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenegotiating exclusive partnerships and letting new players operate through national post offices, banks, and telecommunications companies will increase competition and lower remittance prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brief also looked at the SDG target of reducing the recruitment costs paid by migrant workers, which are high, especially for lower-skilled migrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cMillions of low-skilled migrant workers are vulnerable to recruitment malpractices, including exorbitant recruitment costs,\u201d said Michal Rutkowski, Senior Director of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to boost efforts to create jobs in developing countries and to monitor and reduce recruitment costs paid by these workers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Remittances from Ghanaians living abroad to Ghana increased by 7.3 percent to US$3.8 billion in 2018. Remittances to Sub-Saharan African countries in 2018 contributed substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of these nations. Transfers grew by almost 10 per cent to US$46 billion, according to the World Bank\u2019s latest Migration and Development Brief. Ghana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-bank-of-ghana"],"yoast_head":"\n