New Telegraph

Nigeria, other African nations got $95.6bn Diaspora remittances in 2021–AfDB

The African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Akinwumi Adesina, has highlighted the importance of Africans in the diaspora to the continent’s economic growth. Adesina, who spoke at the Global Community of Practice (G-COP) policy dialogue hosted by the bank in Abidjan, said: “The value of remittances from the African diaspora doubled from $37 billion in 2010 to $87 billion in 2019, reaching $95.6 billion by 2021.”

An AfDB statement yesterday quoted Adesina stating this at the event organised by the bank in collaboration with the African Union Commission, the International Organisation for Migration, and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat. He said: “Yet official development assistance to Africa in 2021 was $35 billion, or 36% of the remittances from the diaspora.

Egypt and Nigeria are among the top-ten remittance recipients globally, with $31.5 billion and $19.2 billion, respectively in 2021. “The African diaspora has become the largest financier of Africa. And it is not debt, it is 100% gifts or grants, a new form of concessional financing that is the key for livelihood security for millions of Africans.” He said while remittances have helped to meet financial, food, education, and health needs, as well as serve as countercyclical sources of finance and social protection, much can be done to better tap into these remittances for Africa’s development.

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