In the past eight years, Nigeria’s Diaspora community has remitted a total of $168.33bn to the country, according to a report by the World Bank. The report, which was collated by correspondents, revealed that foreign investments inflow into the country has fluctuated over the period, leading to a scarcity of foreign currency and the free fall of the naira.
The report also stated that Nigeria’s Diaspora remittances have played a significant role in assuaging the impact of foreign exchange scarcity and keeping the country’s forex reserve afloat. The World Bank disclosed that remittances flow to sub-Saharan Africa grew by 5.2% to $53bn in 2022, with Nigeria receiving the largest share.
Data from the global bank showed that in 2015, the Diaspora remittance was $21.2bn, falling to $19.7bn in 2016, and increasing to $22bn in 2017. By 2018, it was $24.31bn, falling to $23.81bn in 2019, plummeting to $17.21bn in 2020 due to the pandemic, before rebounding to $19.2bn in 2021. The World Bank estimated that the inflows into the country had reached $20.9bn in 2022.
According to the report, prior to 2020, Nigeria’s remittance inflows had only fallen below $20bn once, when it fell to $19.7bn in 2016. The World Bank noted that Diaspora remittance was one of the top sources of non-oil foreign exchange for the country in 2022, adding that the sustained increase in Diaspora inflows since 2021 was due to several new policies from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
As of April 19, 2023, data from the CBN showed that Nigeria’s forex reserve was $34.43bn, an 18.4% increase from the $29.07bn it was in 2015. While Diaspora remittance has offered a lifeline to many Nigerians, the Nigerian Diaspora community has recently stated that the current global economic hardship may affect its ability to transfer a lot of funds home.
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