The Central Bank of Nigeria has recorded a seven fold increase in diaspora remittances three weeks after the apex bank introduced the Naira4Dollar scheme with about $40 million realized in just one week.
Recently, in an effort to sustain the encouraging increase in inflows of diaspora remittances into the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) introduced a ‘Naira 4 Dollar Scheme’ for diaspora remittances, which offers recipients of diaspora remittances through CBN’s IMTOs to be paid N5 for every $1 received as remittance inflow.
The scheme started on Monday, March 8, 2021, and is expected to end on Saturday, May 8, 2021.
According to reliable sources, the scheme had performed a lot more than expected as remittances via commercial banks have picked up suggesting Nigerians in the diaspora have embraced it.
According to the source, the CBN received $40 million last week from remittances up from about $6 million before the policy was introduced. At $40 million a week the CBN could be attracting about $160 million a month or $1.9 billion per annum.
This will be higher than the estimated $1.1 billion received in 2020 from diaspora remittances but much lower than the $3.2 billion received in 2019.
The CBN captures remittances in its Balance of Payment report and the Foreign Exchange Flows data. While the BOP includes non-cash items remitted into Nigeria, the Foreign Exchange Flows Data records cash items only.
Recall that last week, commercial banks in Nigeria are automatically opening domiciliary bank accounts for Beneficiaries of diaspora remittances in Nigeria under the CBN’s Naira4Dollar scheme. As the beneficiary receives the inflows, N5 for every dollar remitted is a credit to the naira account of the beneficiary.
