Total direct remittances to the country fell by $60 million, or 3.03 per cent, to $1.92 billion in 2024 compared with $1.98 billion in the previous year, latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.
New Telegraph’s analysis of data on international payments for the month of February 28, 2025, released by the apex bank, yesterday, further indicates that total direct remittances to the country increased by 130.69 per cent to $125.59 million in February this year compared with $54.44 million in January.
This means that total direct remittances to Nigeria rose by 1.30 per cent, or $2.32 million, to $180.03 million in the first two months of 2025 compared with $177.71 million in the corresponding period of the previous year.
In its “Migration and Development Brief” report, released in June last year, the World Bank stated that although remittance flows to Nigeria fell by 2.9 per cent to $19.5 billion in 2023 compared with the previous year, the country still accounted for around 35 per cent of total remittance inflows of $54 billion to sub-Saharan Africa last year. The report said: “Remittance flows to sub-Saharan Africa were nearly 1.5 times the size of FDI flows in 2023, and relatively more stable.
FDI flows to the region reached $38.6 billion in 2023, driven primarily by greenfield project announcements in Kenya and Nigeria (UNCTAD 2024). “The largest recipients of remittances in the region during 2023—measured in US dollar terms— include Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. Remittances have become the most important foreign exchange earner in several countries.”
Analysts note that with data published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, showing that there were 1.7 million migrants from Nigeria in the diaspora as of 2020, the CBN, in its bid to ensure exchange rate stability, has been stepping up its efforts to boost remittance flows in recent years.
Indeed, under its current Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, who assumed office in September 2023, when the nation was grappling with forex scarcity, the apex bank, in addition to liberalising the forex market, has focused on ensuring that International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs), operating in the country, are allowed to play a role that would lead to a significant increase in remittance flows.
Speaking at a press conference while attending the World Bank/IMF annual meetings in Washington in October last year, Cardoso announced that Nigeria was considering a diaspora bond in the United States next year and is targeting remittance inflows of $1 billion a month.
He said Nigerians abroad are keen to invest in the country and had already more than doubled the remittances they send home since the President Bola Tinubu-led administration started introducing sweeping reforms in June 2023.
He disclosed that remittance inflows, which amounted to a little above $250 million as of April 2024, increased to over $600 million as of September.
According to him, having addressed concerns raised by IMTOs, coupled with the assurances from Nigerians in the diaspora, the apex bank was confident that it would attract $1 billion monthly remittances.
“This target is both ambitious and achievable, and we are fully committed to mobilising resources to reinforce the collaborative task force which I am leading at the bank. We’re confident that we’ll get there,” he said.
