The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso has stated that the bank aims to double diaspora remittance inflow within this year.
He stated this while responding to questions from journalists following the 295th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the bank where he stated that there is already a taskforce monitoring the international money transfer space that reports directly to him.
According to Mr. Cardoso, remittance inflow is estimated to represent about 6% of GDP and the new licensing of 14 International Money Transfer Operators was geared towards increasing competition in the remittances industry.
He stated, “Many of you would have read various publications much of which at the time was led by the world bank in which they figured that Nigeria has a significant amount of remittances from the diaspora.”
“We’ve identified that this is a very critical element of inflows coming into the country. In fact, it is estimated to represent about 6% of our GDP and so therefore, we felt that it was important from the CBN perspective to have a strategy to engage this sector.”
“We set up a taskforce and that taskforce reports to myself. I am very interested in how we make progress in this, and I am certain we would be successful in doing it. Our target of course is to double the remittance flow within the year, and we have started that progress of engaging that it happens. We don’t want to come back later on and tell stories to anybody.”
Ban on Fintechs from onboarding new customers
On stopping Fintechs from onboarding new customers, Mr. Cardoso noted that the fintechs are not being singled out but lauded their progress and contribution to the economy. However, he noted that there is need for heightened regulation and surveillance in the sector considering its fast pace of growth over the past few years considering the issue of illicit flows and money laundering.
He explained that the public stands to benefit from the tightening in regulation in the sector promising that in a couple of months, issues around the sector would be sorted out and become a thing of the past.
Backstory
Despite the target to double diaspora remittances this year, data from international payment from the CBN reveals that diaspora remittances fell by 6.28% to $282.61 million in the first quarter of the year when compared to the same period last year. The data covers diaspora remittances facilitated by licensed International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) in Nigeria.
- The CBN had earlier in February barred banks and fintechs from facilitating international money transfers into Nigeria. The apex bank had recently just licensed 14 new IMTOs stating that it will help boost the supply of forex into the country.