RemitHope wants to turn diaspora remittances into US$50m for African-led projects

While diaspora remittances have provided crucial stability for families back home, a fintech-powered social enterprise believes they can be used for more than just school fees and groceries.

RemitHope wants to turn those dollars into fuel for community development, and it’s setting an ambitious target: US$50 million for 1,000 African-led organisations across 13 countries.

The company talked about that at the ICAZ Winter School & Investment Conference in London, pitching to more than 300 finance leaders, investors, and diaspora representatives.

Their message was that Africa faces a US$650 billion annual shortfall in funding to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With international aid shrinking, local solutions have to step up, and they believe diaspora-driven giving is a big part of the answer.

RemitHope’s Solution

Here’s how RemitHope works: A digital platform links Africans living abroad with pre-screened projects in their home countries. This digital ecosystem guarantees that all giving is secure, transparent, and traceable.

But what’s unique about them is how they multiply every donation through matching funds.

We’ve already seen how this can work. When a fire destroyed the Mount Selinda Orphanage in Zimbabwe, RemitHope mobilised 1,033 donors across 10 countries in less than three weeks, raising US$40,519. With support from institutional partners, the donations were doubled to US$81,038, enough to get the orphanage back on its feet.

That’s the model they want to scale across the continent: leverage diaspora remittances, add institutional backing, and push funding directly into education, healthcare, livelihoods, emergencies, and family support where it’s needed most.

By pitching at places like ICAZ’s Winter School, RemitHope is also targeting professionals and investors in the diaspora, people who can help turn remittances from personal support into community-level impact.

Whether it hits the US$50 million goal remains to be seen, but the early results suggest there’s real potential here. And it’s a cause everyone can get behind.