COVID-19 Exposes Opportunities as Well as Vulnerabilities for Migrants’ Remittances to Senegal

Location Africa

The coronavirus pandemic has caused remittances back into Senegal to dry up as COVID-19 has taken grip and lockdown measures have affected the migrant workers who normally send the money from mostly European countries such as France, Italy and Spain.

Before Europe became the epicentre of the pandemic, the flow of remittances to Senegal had been rising steadily over the past decade. The total in 2019 was just over US$ 2.5 billion, according to the World Bank – up by 79% on the US$ 1.4 billion remitted in 2009 and equivalent to 10.5% of the country’s GDP. These figures put Senegal in the top five of countries in sub-Saharan Africa for the value of remittances, and in the top 10 out of 42 countries for remittances as a percentage of GDP.