Nigerian Diaspora Remittances Soar to $168.33bn in Eight Years
By Boniface Ihiasota, USA
The Nigerian Diaspora has remitted $168.33bn to the country in the past eight years, according to reports from the World Bank.
The country has experienced fluctuations in foreign investments inflow in this period, causing a scarcity of foreign currency, which led to the free fall of the naira.
However, 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 and Budget Office of the Federation reveal that in 2022, remittances flow to sub-Saharan Africa grew by 5.2 percent to $53bn, with Nigeria getting the largest share.
Between 2015 and 2022, a total of $168.33bn was sent home by Nigerians in the Diaspora.
A breakdown of the figures shows that in 2015, the Diaspora remittance was $21.2bn, which fell to $19.7bn in 2016, increased to $22bn in 2017, and by 2018, it was $24.31bn.
It fell to $23.81bn in 2019 and plummeted to $17.21bn in 2020 due to the pandemic.
It made a rebound to $19.2bn in 2021, and by 2022, the World Bank estimated that the inflows into the country had reached $20.9bn.
Diaspora remittance is one of the top sources of non-oil foreign exchange for Nigeria in 2022, according to the World Bank. The sustained increase in Diaspora inflows since 2021 is attributed 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 percent increase from the $29.07bn it was in 2015.
However, the Nigerian Diaspora community recently stated that the current global economic hardship may affect its ability to transfer a lot of funds home, even though Diaspora remittances have offered a lifeline to many Nigerians.
