The development indicates a 48 per cent over a period of one
month.
According to the CBN’s record on weekly international
payments, the country recorded $217.7m, $51.74m and $ 224.24m in total direct
remittances in November, October and September, respectively.
Direct remittances come into the country via the International
Money Transfer Operators, banks, among others.
The CBN’s economic report for the fourth quarter of 2021
said the emergence and spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant affected global
economic dynamics and hampered the inflow of workers’ remittances.
It stated, “The secondary income account posted a lower
surplus of $6.15bn, compared with $6.46bn in the preceding quarter, owing to a
decrease in both general government and personal transfer receipts.
“Personal transfers, including workers’ remittances, fell by
5.0 per cent to $4.72bn in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with $4.97bn in
the preceding quarter, while receipts by the general government in the form of
transfers decreased by 4.0 per cent to $1.5bn.”
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said the lessons learnt
from its policies on remittances could be applied in improving some aspects of
FX inflow into the country.
According to him, there are four major sources of FX inflow
into Nigeria.
He said, “These are proceeds from oil exports, proceeds from
non-oil exports, Diaspora remittances, and foreign direct/portfolio
investments.”
At the launch of ‘RT200 FX Programme’ to boost forex supply
in the country through the non-oil sector in the next three to five years,
Emefiele said policies and measures introduced Diaspora inflow and remittances
from an average of $6m per week in December 2020 to an average of over $100m
per week by January 2022.
“The RT200 FX Programme is a set of policies, plans and
programmes for non-oil exports that will enable us to attain our lofty yet
attainable goal of $200bn in FX repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports,
over the next three to five years,” he said.
He said the programme’s five key anchors are a value-adding
exports facility; non-oil commodities expansion facility; non-oil FX rebate
scheme; dedicated non-oil export terminal; and biannual non-oil export summit.