Visualizing Remittance Impact: Charting the Top Ten Recipients over a Decade (2010-2021)

Why We Looked Into This »? This is a continuation of the series on top foreign remittance recipients. See Tracking Leading Foreign Remittance Destinations (2010-2020).

Often termed as ‘diaspora’ remittances, a term popularly used to illustrate financial support from citizens living abroad, these nations emerged as the primary recipients of substantial remittance inflows throughout 2021:

1. India
2. Mexico
3. China
4. Philippines
5. Egypt
6. Pakistan
7. France
8. Bangladesh
9. Germany
10. Nigeria

Notably, Ukraine closely trails in eleventh place, securing $18.1 billion—a trend attributed to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

A Look at African Countries in The Top Ten

Both Nigeria and Egypt have remained stalwarts in this top ten cohort, with Nigeria historically surpassing remittances compared to Egypt. However, a pivotal change occurred in 2017, shifting Egypt to the forefront as the world’s fifth-largest remittance recipient.

Delving into a retrospective analysis, from 2010 to 2011, Nigeria held the fifth rank, followed by the sixth position from 2012 to 2015 and the seventh from 2016 to 2019. In 2020, a significant shift saw Nigeria relegated to the tenth spot.

Despite enjoying remittance totals surpassing 20 billion since 2017, Nigeria experienced a decline in 2020, with remittances dropping to 17.1 billion. The World Bank attributes this downturn to scarcity in foreign exchange, coupled with fluctuating exchange rates, leading remittances to navigate toward more favorable mediums offering superior rates.