Remittances To Ghana Hits $4.2 Billion Mid-Year

Balance of Payment data from the Bank of Ghana (BOG) indicates that total private money transfers to Ghana between January and May this year is $4.2 billion.

The figure represents 22.2 per cent increase over that of the same period last year.

Deputy Governor of BOG, Dr. H. A. K. Wampah who disclosed this at the launch of a new money transfer system by Ecobank Ghana dubbed Rapidtransfer. He says out of the total, $626.6 million went to individual Ghanaians this year, compared to $604 million last year.

At the global level, $300 billion was transferred in remittances last year, out of which $40 billion was in Africa alone.

Dr. Wampah says remittances outstripped Foreign Direct Investment and Development Assistance put together.

He says this explains why policymakers in Africa are creating incentives to make private money transfer desirable to attract more remittances.

Dr. expressed the hope that Ecobanks new money transfer system will further improve the easy movement of money within the continent.

Head of Retail Banking at Ecobank Ghana, Mr. George Mensah-Asante says Rapidtransfer is a system that allows Ecobank customers and non-customers to transfer cedis to 30 African countries and the recipients will receive it in their local currency.

He says the system allows money to be transferred and received within 10 minutes either within Ghana or from Ghana to other African countries. Mr. Mensah-Asante says one does not need to have an Ecobank account to use the Rapidtransfer system, adding that it eliminates the risk of carrying money around.