Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Total direct diaspora remittances into Nigeria plunged 50.5 percent in February 2020 to $1.02 billion from $2.05 billion in January, the latest figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed.
This was attributed to the early effects of the current global economy challenges caused by COVID-19.
However, the apex bank revealed that Nigeria received $19.2 billion in total direct diaspora remittances between January and December of 2019.
The data published by the regulator showed that the remittances rose by 70.6 percent when compared to $11.23 billion reported in 2018.
The breakdown of CBN’s total direct remittances revealed that in January 2019, $1.89 billion was remitted, while in February, $1.92 billion was the total direct remittance.
According to the CBN, $1.12 billion and $1.56billion were the total direct remittances between March and April 2019 respectively. Total direct remittance hit $1.74 billion in May; $1.67 billion in June and $1.66 billion in July 2019.
However, for August and September, the apex bank reported $1.66 billion and $1.69 billion respectively was remitted to the nation’s economy. The figures were around $1.35 billion in October and $1.32 billion in November but in December, it increased to $1.59 billion.
The CBN attributed this rise to a series of foreign exchange reforms that tend to attract inflow of capital.
The CBN had licenced International Money Transfer Operators (IMTO) and monitors legitimate foreign currency, most especially Dollar inflow into the country. In addition, banks and oil companies also remit foreign currency to the CBN.
The CBN also showed that the total number of Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) so far issued by financial service institutions in the country has climbed to 41.9 million as at June 7, 2020.
The rise in the number of new account opening and enrollment on BVN platform by bank customers can be attributable to the increasing number of customers opening new accounts and those regularising delinquent accounts following the challenges they faced during the lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Crowds in banks’ branches have continued to increase several weeks after the lockdown was partially lifted, with the majority of the people wanting to open new bank accounts, activate their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards and lodged complaints about failed transactions, among others.
The current BVN data falls short of the CBN’s target of 100 million customers’ enrollment on the BVN network in the next five years, but was an improvement from about 36 million captured in the last one year.
