Remittance providers and stakeholders, including money transfer operators, mobile financial services providers and regulators would converging on Lagos for the RemitAfrica Conference in November. This is contained in a statement by Mr Emmanuel Okoegwale, Communications Officer for Mobile Money Africa and made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Lagos.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) defines remittance as monetary transfer (funds) by a migrant to relatives, other persons or group of persons in his/her country of origin. These funds include personal deposits, investments, intra-family transfers and donations to relatives or other projects in their country of origin, pension and social security transfers.
However, the statement said that the two-day event, to be hosted by Mobile Money Africa, would attract more than 200 delegates and 65 industry stakeholders from about 25 countries. It noted that the formal market for international and cross border money transfer to Africa was still young and faced typical emerging market challenges when compared to more established markets.
According to the statement, a competitive market space is required to foster technology innovation, access and drive for the expansion necessary to reduce cost and reach underserved areas. Quoting a recent report by the World Bank, it said that the growth of remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa was projected to slow to 0.9 per cent in 2015, amounting to 33 billion dollars.
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“Globally, it is expected to reach 586 billion dollars in 2015, though at a slower growth rate of 0.4 per cent due to economic conditions. The development is expected to accelerate again to reach an estimated 636 billion dollars in 2017, the statement said. It explained that the technological revolution in mobile telephony in Africa had yet to drive down costs in remittance markets.
The statement said that the conference would discuss the barriers to cost-reduction, challenges and opportunities in the African remittance market. “It will also discuss improving efficiency at the last mile, the role of non-bank financial institutions and the emergence of digital remittances such as mobile money and online transfers.
“Also crypto-currencies in lowering remittance cost for Africans,’’ the statement said. Meanwhile, Dr Evans Osabuohien of the Department of Economics and Development Studies, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun, has said that Africans did not have much control of the cost of remittances to it.
The economist told pressmen that there should be a possibility of having direct bank transfers without having to go through the various electronic money transfer channels. He noted that the problem of remittances to Africa was compounded by the fact that some African immigrants did not have legal residency abroad.
“Some of them in this cadre choose to remit their funds through informal approaches without having to go through the banks or other electronic channels,’’ the don said. The economist explained that remittance inflow, apart from foreign direct investment (FDI) represented Africa’s largest source of foreign financial inflow.
He observed that remittances were less volatile and by extension, less dependent on international politics and events. “This implies that shocks from the international economy may not have much impact on the volume of remittance inflow, compared to other sources of foreign financial inflow, the don said.
