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Nigeria
is ranked first among the top 10 remittance recipients in 2010 in sub
Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank’s latest Migration and
Remittances Factbook 2011 released on Tuesday.

Nigeria
received $10 billion (about N1.5 trillion) from remittances, followed a
distant second by Sudan, with $3.2 billion; Kenya, $1.8 billion;
Senegal, $1.2 billion; and South Africa, $1 billion. The report also
listed Nigeria among the top 10 emigration countries in the region
alongside Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali,
Sudan, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa.

The
report described remittances to developing countries as a resilient
source of external financing during the recent global financial crisis,
with recorded flows expected to reach $325 billion by the end of this
year, up from $307 billion in 2009. The report added that worldwide,
remittance flows are expected to reach $440 billion by the end of this
year.

The true size of remittances, including unrecorded flows through formal and informal channels, is believed to be larger.

Official
data for the months of January-August 2010 indicate that the Central
Bank supplied approximately 27.1 percent of the $52 billion of inflows
to Nigeria’s foreign exchange market, with “autonomous sources” oil
companies, international institutions, and remittances accounting for
the rest.

Source of financial support

“Remittances
are a vital source of financial support that directly increases the
income of migrants’ families,” said Hans Timmer, director of
development prospects at the World Bank.

“Remittances
lead to more investments in health, education, and small business. With
better tracking of migration and remittance trends, policy makers can
make informed decisions to protect and leverage this massive capital
inflow, which is triple the size of official aid flows,” Mr. Timmer
said.

Christian
Udechukwu, West Africa regional director, Money Transfer International
(MTI), a money transfer firm, said more remittances inflow into the
region can be achieved when regulators of countries, which have high
numbers of Diaspora population, lower barriers on remittances from
their countries.

“These
barriers are usually in terms of restrictions on minimum remittances,
stiff documentation requirements, and outright refusal of permission to
financial intermediaries to license companies who are keen to serve the
diaspora remittances market,” Mr. Udechukwu.

The
World Bank report stated that officially recorded remittance flows to
developing countries are estimated to increase by six percent to $325
billion in 2010. This marks a healthy recovery from a 5.5 percent
decline registered in 2009.

“In
line with the World Bank’s outlook for the global economy, remittance
flows to developing countries are expected to increase by 6.2 percent
in 2011 and 8.1 percent in 2012, to reach $374 billion by 2012,” the
report said.

The
top remittance sending countries in 2009 were the United States, Saudi
Arabia, Switzerland, Russia, and Germany. Worldwide, the top recipient
countries in 2010 are India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, and
France. As a share of GDP, however, remittances are more significant
for smaller countries – more than 25 percent in some countries.