Daily Trust (Abuja)
27 October 2009
Abuja — According to a World Bank record presented at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) remittances forum in Tunisia yesterday, Nigeria ranks top among five leading African countries with the highest remittances inflow.
Making a presentation at the IFAD forum, Director of the Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions Wolday Amha said Nigeria is leading the pack of the top five African countries in terms of remittances inflow under a World Bank survey followed by Kenya, Sudan, Senegal and Sudan who get $1.3 billion, $1.2 billion, $874 million and $856 million respectively.
He noted that governments in Africa can help increase remittances by allowing duty free facilities for immigrants and investment opportunity to immigrants but focused more on the Ethiopian government.
According to his presentation, "remittances are estimated at more than $290 billion in 2009 alone with sub-Saharan Africa getting up to 5% of the sum per annum and that such remittances have doubled to 10.8 billion in the last five years."
Senior Financial sector specialist, Financial Integrity of the World Bank, Emiko Todori explained that the need to regulate remittances transfer is to create a level playing field for a competitive market among countries and the need to counter the abuse of remittance channels by criminals which he said would address rising security concerns.
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