The money sub-Saharan Africa received last year from its diaspora was 12.5% less than the previous year. The figures were unveiled by World Bank in a May 12 report.

According to the new "Migration and Development Brief", the SSA diaspora sent $42 billion home in 2020 against $48 billion in 2019. This is the second consecutive year of decline; in 2019, decline was only 0.4%.

According to the World Bank, this situation is due to the various restriction measures related to the covid-19 pandemic. "There was a sharp temporary drop in remittance flows in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020, as lockdowns and travel bans imposed in response to the COVID-19 crisis also shut down remittance services (figure 1.2). It is possible that migrants postponed sending money during the initial chaos in late March and April 2020,” the report said.

“Even if they had money to send, they could not send cash, as money transfer operators had temporarily closed their offices. Travel restrictions affected in-kind or cash remittances carried by hand by travelers.” However, globally, the World Bank reports that remittances were more or less resilient against the virus in 2020.

“Defying predictions, remittance flows have proved to be resilient during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2020, officially recorded remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $540 billion, only 1.6 percent below the $548 billion seen in 2019. Remittances exceeded foreign direct investment flows by a wider margin in 2020. Excluding China, remittance flows surpassed the sum of foreign direct investment and official development assistance,” the report added.

Moreover, although sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the largest decline in remittances, North Africa is, along with the Middle East, MENA, one of the regions that have recorded an increase in remittances (+2.3%), albeit less than the previous year.

According to the World Bank, Egypt is among the top five destinations for global remittances in 2020. The decline in sub-Saharan Africa is up from the World Bank's October 2020 forecast. The World Bank forecasted a 9% decline in remittances to $44 billion.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou