Nigeria’s total FOREX remittances dropped by $119.4m to $130.12m as of January 2022 from $249.52m as of December 2021, figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reveal.
The development shows a 48 percent decline over a period of one month. Direct remittances come into the country via the International Money Transfer Operators and banks.
According to the CBN’s record on weekly international payments, the country recorded $217.7m, $51.74m, and $ 224.24m in total direct remittances in November, October, and September.
The CBN’s economic report for the fourth quarter of 2021 said the emergence and spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant affected global economic dynamics and hampered the inflow of workers’ remittances.
It stated, “The secondary income account posted a lower surplus of $6.15bn, compared with $6.46bn in the preceding quarter, due to a decrease in general government and personal transfer receipts.
“Personal transfers, including workers’ remittances, fell by 5.0 per cent to $4.72bn in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with $4.97bn in the preceding quarter, while receipts by the general government in the form of transfers decreased by 4.0 per cent to $1.5bn.”
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said lessons learned from its policies on remittances could be applied in improving some aspects of FX inflow into the country. According to him, there are four major sources of FX inflow into Nigeria.
He said, “These are proceeds from oil exports, non-oil exports, Diaspora remittances, and foreign direct/portfolio investments.”
At the launch of ‘RT200 FX Programme’ to boost forex supply in the country through the non-oil sector in the next three to five years, Emefiele said policies and measures introduced Diaspora inflow and remittances from an average of $6m per week in December 2020 to an average of over $100m per week by January 2022.
“The RT200 FX Programme is a set of policies, plans and programmes for non-oil exports that will enable us to attain our lofty yet attainable goal of $200bn in FX repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports, over the next three to five years,” he said.
He said the program’s key anchors are:
- A value-adding exports facility and a non-oil commodities expansion facility.
- A non-oil FX rebate scheme.
- A dedicated non-oil export terminal.
- A biannual non-oil export summit.
