NAIROBI, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Remittance flows in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to drop by 23.1 percent to reach 37 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 due to the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown, the World Bank predicted on Wednesday.
The World Bank said while recovery of 4 percent is expected in 2021, the sharp decline is largely due to a fall in the wages and employment of migrant workers, who tend to be more vulnerable to loss of employment and wages during an economic crisis in a host country.
"Effective social protection systems are crucial to safeguarding the poor and vulnerable during this crisis in both developing countries as well as advanced countries. In host countries, social protection interventions should also support migrant populations," said Michal Rutkowski, global director for Social Protection and Jobs at the World Bank.
The lender said remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa registered a small decline of 0.5 percent to 48 billion dollars in 2019.
According to the Bank, the anticipated decline can be attributed to a combination of factors driven by the coronavirus outbreak in key destinations where African migrants reside including in the EU area, the United States, the Middle East, and China.
"These large economies host a large share of Sub-Saharan African migrants and combined, are a source of close to a quarter of total remittances sent to the region," said the World Bank.
In addition to the pandemic's impact, it said, many countries in the eastern Africa region are experiencing a severe outbreak of desert locusts attacking crops and threatening the food supply for people in the region.
According to the lender, sending 200 U.S. dollars remittances to the region cost 8.9 percent on average in the first quarter of 2020, a modest decrease compared with the average cost of 9.25 percent a year before.
The most expensive corridors are observed mainly in the Southern African region, with costs as high as 20 percent, it said, adding that the less expensive corridors had average costs of less than 3.6 percent.
Dilip Ratha, lead author of the Brief and head of KNOMAD, the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, said quick actions that make it easier to send and receive remittances can provide much-needed support to the lives of migrants and their families.
"These include treating remittance services as essential and making them more accessible to migrants," said Ratha. Enditem
