File photo
Remittances to Ghana increased by 5% to $3.6 billion in spite of the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19.
The World Bank’s 2021 Migration and Development report, which made this known, said with the exception of Nigeria where there was a significant decline in remittances, foreign inflows to Africa went up by 2.3%.
The report said Ghana ranked second behind Nigeria, benefiting significantly from remittance flows last year.
“Remittance flows to the region were estimated to have declined by 12.5% in 2020. The decline was almost entirely due to a 27.7% decline in remittance flows to Nigeria, which alone accounted for over 40% of remittance flows to the region.”
“Excluding Nigeria, remittance flows to sub-Saharan African increased by 2.3 per cent, demonstrating resilience at a time of crisis. Indeed, strong remittance growth was reported in Zambia (37%), Mozambique (16%), Kenya (9%), and Ghana (5%),” the report added.
There are hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians residing in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France who remit funds regularly to their families, love ones and relations in the country.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, where most of these economies went into lockdown over months, Ghanaians in the diaspora continued to remit their families and friends back home.
Ghana, particularly, benefited from the remittance flows as its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) was fairly good.
Banks were also not left out as their commissions from the remittances were expected to have gone up.
Nonetheless, the report said remittance flows to the region were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular as a result of restricted mobility measures and the employment situation in the main host countries.
However, in the case of Ghana, a lot of people were not affected as remittances to urban and rural areas went up slightly.
