The official remittance to Nigeria is expected to reach 21 billion dollars this year according to a new migration and development brief on remittance trends by World Bank.

According to report, Nigeria and other sub-saharan African countries are expected to see an increase of 6.2% on officially recorded remittance as compared to $30 billion dollars in 2012.

Other large remittance recipients in sub-Saharan Africa include; Senegal ($1.4 billion), Kenya ($1.2 billion), South Africa ($1 billion), and Uganda ($ 700 million).

According to World Bank, ‘a key problem facing the region is the closing of bank accounts of money transfer operators by correspondent banks in the united states and united kingdom. This is likely to increase remittance flow through informal channels which will further make worse the quality of remittance data in the region’’.

Also the report entitled ‘Migration and Remittance Flows: Recent Trends and Outlook,2013-2016, published last Wednesday, states that the remittances are an important source of foreign exchanges and are helping to cover deficits in the region.