Nigeria is among the top beneficiaries
of the $110bn in remittance sent home by Europe’s 50-million-strong
migrant population in 2014, an International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) said on Monday.
According to IFAD, the funds constituted
a critical lifeline for millions of individual households, helping
families raise their living standards above subsistence and
vulnerability levels.
“It will help with improved health,
education, housing and levels of entrepreneurship and supporting the
livelihood of 150 million people.”
IFAD said 109.4 billion dollars were wired from rich Western European nations and from Russia to poorer parts of Europe.
It said the benefiting countries include
Balkans and former Soviet bloc countries, Africa, the Middle East, the
Caucasus and Asia.
IFAD said a report from the UN’s rural
development bank indicated that the top five senders of so-called
migrant remittances were Russia, Britain, German, France and Italy.
It added that the top five beneficiaries were Nigeria, China, Morocco, India and Uzbekistan,.
Dr Kanayo Nwanze, the IFAD President, said the figures were released amid growing intra-European tensions on migration.
He said mostly, with Italy complaining
of receiving insufficient solidarity from the EU peers, as it deals with
a record number of sea arrivals from North Africa.
Nwanze argued even though they should
not be seen as a substitute for development aid, yet the remittances
brought a measure of hope and stability to their countries of origin,
and the international community could do more to help maximise their
positive effect.
He stated if the G20 objectives to
reduce money transfer costs to five per cent from the current levels of
eight per cent were to be met, migrants could send an extra 2.5 billion
dollars to help their families back home.
Nwanze said the immense potential of remittances for development was still largely underutilised.
He said in spite of this it was within
IFAD’s capacity to make every-hard earned euro, ruble, krona or Swiss
franc sent home count even more.
NAN
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