Despite COVID-19, money sent to Zim from the diaspora is up by 48%

Back in April, the World Bank forecasted that remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa would take a 20% dip. The reasoning behind this was of course because of the impact that COVID-19 has had on the incomes of those who are working abroad. Job losses have been a feature of the pandemic and all of that was going to play a part in money inflows from the diaspora.

Well, it seems like that hasn’t been the case if we look at Zimbabwe in isolation. Remittance figures for the country have been growing steadily over the year. According to the RBZ’s latest figures, money from the diaspora has grown by 48% in the last 10 months:

Month	2020 (in US$)	2019 (in US$)	% Change
January	60 607 249	44 567 757	36%
February	69 230 034	41 788 076	66%
March	61 172 535	62 414 369	-2%
April	30 920 048	49 227 045	-37%
May	66 815 291	53 896 272	24%
June	85 849 311	46 525 102	85%
July	91 853 269	51 255 846	79%
August	92 935 172	51 493 734	80%
September	98 384 807	52 538 456	87%
October	103 084 503	59 818 518	72%
Total	760 752 217	513 515 183	48%

From the above figures, there was a contraction in March and July which would have indicated that 20% decline the World Bank alluded to. However from then on the numbers have been very impressive, this year’s figures are on course to being the best since 2016:

Year	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020(October)
Total Individual Remittances (US$)	838 million	939 million	776 million	699 million	619 million	636 million	761 million