By Kelvin J. Kelley
The estimate by the Pew Research Centre is based on statistics developed last year by the World Bank
The United Kingdom was Kenya’s single-largest source of remittances, with $663 million sent home in 2017.
Kenyans living in the US, which ranked second, sent back $584 million.
Ghana and Senegal each accounted for about $2.2 billion in remittances.
Kenyans living abroad sent almost $2 billion (Sh200 billion) to their families and others in their homeland in 2017, a US data-analysis group said.
The estimate by the Pew Research Centre is based on statistics developed last year by the World Bank.
“The total amount of money sent is likely much larger than current estimates because only funds sent through formal channels such as banks are included,” the Pew Centre noted. Untracked sums may be especially large in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa because only 40 per cent of people in the region use formal financial services, Pew added.
REMITTANCES
The United Kingdom was Kenya’s single-largest source of remittances, with $663 million sent home in 2017. Kenyans living in the US, which ranked second, sent back $584 million.
Tanzania was third on the list of countries with the largest amounts of money remitted to Kenya.
Kenyans sent home a total of $143 million from Tanzania, followed by Canada ($123 million), Uganda ($107 million), Australia ($75 million) and South Africa ($51 million).
Kenya was among four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa receiving the most remittances in 2017, the latest year for which data is available.