The World Bank has said that Nigerians abroad sent home $20.9 billion to families and friends.
This was contained in its latest Migration and Development Brief published Wednesday on its website.
The brief stated that remittance flows to Nigeria increased by 7.5% when compared to the previous year.
That puts its inflows far ahead of other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Ghana ($4.7 billion), Kenya ($4.1 billion) and Senegal ($2.7 billion).
Nigeria is the largest recipient of remittances in the region (SSA), although it came in second for Africa as a whole, behind Egypt ($32.3 billion) which is grouped under the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), region.
Nigeria which witnessed a sharp recovery in flows during 2021 (13.2 percent), maintained the improved momentum of 2021 into the first quarter of 2022.
However, growth fell in Q2 data to 0.5 percent vis-à-vis the same period of 2021.
Moreover, the country is reaping little benefit from the surge in crude oil prices, while the expatriate community faces real income losses in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Euro Area.
Financial flows to Africa have been exceptionally volatile over the longer term and continuing into the 2020s, particularly for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and portfolio flows.
(Ripples Nigeria)
