Remittances: migrants from all over the world sent 577,000 million euros to their families in 2021

Los migrants from around the world transferred more than 577 billion euros ($602 billion) to their families in low- and moderate-income countries in 2021, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reported Thursday.

This figure could reach between 2022 and 2030 a cumulative amount of about 5.1 billion euros (almost 5.4 billion dollars), according to an IFAD report, that is, double the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Africa in 2021, according to the same source.

“Despite forecasts that the covid-19 pandemic would reduce the sum of remittances” from migrants to their families, these amounts registered an increase of 8.6% in 2021. And this was thanks, in large part, to the “increase of 48% of money transfers through mobile phones,” especially due to the pandemic and the closure of borders, said IFAD, a UN organization based in Rome.

Most of the amounts sent were cash transferred by customers, and transfers through cell phones represented 3% of the total, but they are increasing.

“Cash is still up but losing ground,” said Pedro de Vasconcelos, an IFAD official, contacted by AFP.

“The digitization of transfersespecially through the use of mobile phones, represents a great opportunity to strengthen rural development, since half of these sums go to rural areas,” said Gilbert Houngbo, president of IFAD, quoted in the statement.

“Money remittances help lift people out of poverty, put food on the table, pay school fees and cover health costs,” Houngbo recalled.