Informal Remittance Systems in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries: Ghana Country Study Adam Higazi

Introduction

Many Ghanaians live outside Ghana, and their contribution to the Ghanaian economy and individual households is increasingly recognised. The next section of this paper gives an overview of the scale and character of Ghanaian migration. Mass emigration in the 1970s and 1980s has helped to sustain a steady flow of migrants up to the present and created a large diaspora that spans Europe, North America and elsewhere. This has shaped remittance flows, the volumes of which are difficult to measure accurately, as discussed in the third section. Estimates on formal remittances made by the IMF, World Bank and Bank of Ghana are analysed, and the size of informal remittance flows compared to legal flows is discussed. The importance of the Ghana Living Standards Survey as a means of gauging remittances’ impact on Ghana’s households is highlighted.

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