According to information acquired from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country’s total direct remittances fell by $119.4 million to $130.12 million in January 2022, down from $249.52 million in December 2021.
Over the course of a month, the development shows a 48 percent increase.
According to the CBN’s weekly foreign payments records, the country received total direct remittances of $217.7 million, $51.74 million, and $ 224.24 million in November, October, and September, respectively.
Direct remittances entered the country through International Money Transfer Operators, banks, and other financial institutions.
The appearance and spread of the omicron COVID-19 variation impeded the influx of workers’ remittances, according to the CBN’s economic report for the fourth quarter of 2021.
“Due to a decline in both general government and personal transfer revenues, the secondary income account showed a reduced surplus of $6.15 billion, compared to $6.46 billion in the prior quarter,” it said.
Direct remittances enter the country through International Money Transfer Operators, banks, and other financial institutions.
The appearance and spread of the omicron COVID-19 variation impeded the influx of workers’ remittances, according to the CBN’s economic report for the fourth quarter of 2021.
“Due to a decline in both general government and personal transfer revenues, the secondary income account showed a reduced surplus of $6.15 billion, compared to $6.46 billion in the prior quarter,” it said.
Emefiele said policies and measures introduced Diaspora inflow and remittances from an average of $6 million per week in December 2020 to an average of over $100 million per week by January 2022 at the launch of the ‘RT200 FX Program’ to boost forex supply in the country through the non-oil sector in the next three to five years.
“The RT200 FX Program is a combination of policies, strategies, and programmes for non-oil exports that will enable us to achieve our ambitious but realistic objective of $200 billion in FX repatriation, entirely from non-oil exports, over the next three to five years,” he explained.
A value-adding exports facility, non-oil commodities growth facility, non-oil FX rebate scheme, dedicated non-oil export terminal, and biennial non-oil export conference, he added, are the program’s five essential pillars.