Often seen by host countries as a source of problems, migrants contribute to development through both host and departure countries. As employees or employers, migrants generate wealth. They send their money home for the family or to invest in promising sectors. In this article, we focus on the financial contribution of migrants to Africa.

 Migration Data Portal generally refers to financial or in-kind transfers made by migrants for the benefit of their friends or relatives in their communities of origin. However, the statistical definition of international remittances only partially reflects this common interpretation.

Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa increased by 6.1% in 2022 to $53 billion, the World Bank estimated. According to the same source, this dynamic can be explained in large part by the sharp increase in remittances to Ghana (12%), Kenya (8.5%), Tanzania (25%), Rwanda (21%) and Uganda (17%).  Flows to Nigeria, the World Bank said, account for about 38 percent of the total remittances sent by migrant workers to the region, increased by 3.3 percent to $20.1 billion.

Migration Data Portal notes that Sub-Saharan Africa continued to have the highest average cost of remittances, at around 7.8%.

According to the World Bank, remittances have supported the current accounts of several African countries facing food insecurity, supply chain disruptions, severe drought (Horn of Africa), floods (Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon), and debt servicing challenges for more and more of them. According to projections for 2023, the increase in remittances to sub-Saharan Africa is not expected to exceed 1.3%. The cost of a $200 transfer to the region averaged 8% in the fourth quarter of 2022, up from 7.8% a year earlier.

Africa Renewal,  which quotes Dilip Ratha and Sonia Plaza who wrote in the World Bank’s 2011 report, “The Diaspora for Development in Africa”, states that if one in ten members of the diaspora could be persuaded to invest $1,000 in their home countries, Africa would raise $3 billion a year to finance development.

Remittances, Migration Data Portal points out, go beyond official development assistance but are private funds.