August 23, 2008
Muluken Yewondwossen
During the last fiscal year [July 07-July 08], Ethiopia earned one billion dollars from international remittances transferred from Ethiopian and foreign nationals. This exceeds by 367 million dollars the previous year’s remittances, according to a source within the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). In fiscal year 2006-07 the remittance was only 633 million dollars. The official report is expected at the end of August, added the source.
Of the total, 804 million dollars is sent to individuals while the balance is for organizations.
This year, Ethiopia generated 2.5 billion dollars in foreign exchange.
“The increase is the result of NBE’s directive issued in 2006 which allows money transfers,” stated the source.
The 2006 Remittance Service Providers (RSPs) directive indicated that users of this system can obtain information from access points such as bank branches, post offices and related organizations. The directive aims to improve the operations of the formal remittance service in Ethiopia, to reduce the costs of remittance transfer in Ethiopia and to increase access of international remittance service for nationals and make the service quick and reliable.
The major transfer types contained in international remittance transfer are personal transfer, funds for investment, international cash donations, deposit and service payments and temporary and permanent migrant transfers.
There are over 27 remittance service providers (RSPs) who work in collaboration with Ethiopian commercial banks. Source
No comments:
Post a Comment