Kenyans in the diaspora sent home 241 Million Euros last month, a 27 percent increase from 190 Million Euros remittances in March 2020. This was an average 5.2 Million weekly in 2020 despite the economic weigh-down of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that diaspora remittances hit 2.52 Billion euros ($3.094 billion) last year, being a growth of 10.7 percent from 2.2 billion euros ($2.796 billion) that was sent home the previous year.
This means about 5.2 billion was sent home every week, deepening the share of remittances in the country’s foreign exchange receipts.
CBK governor Patrick Njoroge said, “Remittance inflows were strongly buoyant in 2020 despite the devastation by Covid-19 in the source countries.”
He added that the remarkable growth of remittances has been supported by financial innovations that provided Kenyans in the diaspora with more convenient methods to transact. Remittances showed up to be 9.56 percent higher than projected.
Inflows from the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Germany also make up key contributions.
Source: Business Daily