Friday 15 January 2010

Africa: Leveraging the Impact of Remittances to Africa

Increasingly Africans living and working abroad are being called upon to take a more active role in the development of the continent. Some African countries have established Diaspora forums to engage the experience (and financial assistance) of these expatriates and migrants.

An often overlooked fact about the African Diaspora is that the amounts of money migrants send home to relatives and friends each year generally exceeds the amount of money given to Africa through official development aid.

Estimates of the average total annual value of remittances to Africa vary between $32 and $40 billion. (This excludes the informal network of money transfers, which is significant. If taken into account this figure could increase by as much as 50%.) Official development aid is around $25 billion per annum (according to promises issued during the G8 Summit). Read more

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