Direct foreign exchange remittances fell year-on-year (YoY) by $10 million or 0.84 percent to $1.18 billion in the first seven months (January to July) of 2024, 7M’24, from $1.19 billion in the corresponding period of 2023.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, ‘International Payment Statistics’ showed that the highest direct remittance of $365.4 million was recorded in May 2024.
However, the breakdown of the data showed sharp fluctuation in the month-on-month volume of transaction during the period.
Remittances which stood at $138.5 million in January went down by 71.7 percent to $39.14 million in February and went up by 168 percent to $104.9 million in March.
The upward trend continued in April when remittance grew by 84.2 percent to $193.3 million and up again by 89 percent to $365.4 million in May.
However, the upward trend reversed in June when remittance fell by 26 percent to $270.5 million and further down by 73.2 percent to $72.3 million in July.
In its latest Migration and Development Brief released by the World Bank said that remittance flows to Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) including Nigeria slowed between 2022 and 2023, reaching an estimated $656 billion in total, up by 0.77 percent as against the 8.3 percent growth between 2021 and 2022.
However, making growth projections for the region the World Bankstated: “The growth rate of remittance flows to LMICs is expected to recover to 2.3 percent in 2024 and 2.8 percent in 2025, to reach $690 billion in 2025”.