Africa Development Bank (AfDB) would promote remittances into Africa from its Diaspora community to boost the region’s economic growth, Gabriel Negatu, the bank’s Director General for East Africa Regional Centre, said.
Negatu said this in Nairobi on Monday during the AfDB Business Opportunity Seminar.
He added that the bank was working with national governments to reform financial systems to attract more remittances into Africa.
He said “we want Africa to fully exploit the potential of its remittances to mobilise funds for development.”
Report says the three-day seminar aims to highlight procurement opportunities that exist in the pan-African bank’s projects.
Negatu noted that remittances played bigger role in Africa’s development than in the past.
He stressed that “in fact, remittances from Africans living abroad have exceeded value of Overseas Development Aid from donors.”
The AfDB official said remittances could also help the continent to shield itself from externals shocks such as lower commodity prices.
The pan-African bank is currently providing technical assistance to a number of African governments to put in place appropriate policies and regulations that will attract Africans living overseas to invest at home, he says.
Negatu noted that returns of investments in Africa were typically higher than in developed countries.
