Remittances by Nigerians living abroad provided a boost to the economy in 2018 as the total value of remittance from migrants amounted to $25 billion, (about N9 trillion), the highest diaspora inflow into the country in the last 13 years.
The global accounting giant,
PricewaterhouseCopers, PWC, gave this information in a report titled:
“Nigeria Economic Outlook: Top 10 Themes for 2019”. They noted that the
amount translates to 83 percent of the federal government’s budget in
2018 and 11 times the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the same
period. The figure represents 6.1 percent of the country’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP).
Nigeria’s migrant remittance inflow was
also seven times larger than the net official development assistance
(foreign aid) of $3.359 billion received in 2017. The Report showed that
remittance by Nigerians in diaspora rose steadily in the last 13 years
and peaked last year in 2018 by 71.3 percent from $14.640 billion in
2005, while also outpacing FDI inflow by huge 1,036 percent.
Conversely,
FDI inflow into the country, which stood at $2.200 billion within the
period (2018), was 1,036 percent slower than the migrant remittance
inflow.
Detailed breakdown of the migrant remittance during the
13 year period showed tremendous increase in the last three years, as it
grew by 11.79 percent to $22.001 billion in 2017 from $19.679 billion
in 2016, before recording another 14 percent growth in 2018 to the
current figure. According to the Report, leading countries worldwide by
value of remittance outflows comprise the United States of America,
Germany, Russia and China.
Andrew S. Nevin, Chief Economist, PWC,
said: “Nigeria’s biggest export is not oil; it is actually people,
because of the remittances coming in. Election uncertainty coupled with
lacklustre execution of policy reforms impact FDI inflow.”
“Global
FDI flows fell by 19 percent in 2018. However, 2018 FDI flows to Africa
increased by six percent from $38 billion to $40 billion. South Africa
grew by 446 percent; Egypt by seven percent. Nigeria, on the other hand,
fell by 36 percent (to $2.2 billion) and was overtaken by Ghana with
$3.3 billion,” PWC said in the Report.
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