fbpx

Remittances Overtake FDI As Africa’s No. 1 External Financial Source

Remittances Overtake FDI As Africa’s No. 1 External Financial Source

From MSN.

Africa is the most expensive continent to send money to, with transfers costing an average 11.67 percent of the amount being sent, compared to around 8.35 percent for Asia. The global average cost is just over 9 percent, according to an MSN report.

The issue is likely to gain more urgency now that remittance flows to the continent have overtaken foreign direct investment and official development assistance as the largest external financial source for the first time, according to the African Development Bank. Remittances to Africa grew to a record $60.4 billion in 2012, the bank said.

Transaction fees of 11.67 percent deprived some of the world’s poorest people of more than $7 billion in 2012, the World Bank says. And there are other expenses. Some recipients who live in rural areas must travel a day or more to collect their money.

“It’s expensive to be poor,” said Donald Terry, a financial inclusion expert at the Boston University Law School, who was quoted in MSN.

Intra-African transfers are even more costly. In South Africa and Tanzania, average remittance prices are 20.7 percent and 19.7 percent respectively.

Read more at MSN.