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Determinants of Migrants’ ‎Remittances in the West Africa ‎Monetary Zones ‎‎(WAMZ): An ‎Econometric Evaluation‎

Dr. Iseghohi Judith Omon

Volume 4 Issue 1 | Mar 2021

DOI: 10.31841/KJEMS.2021.10

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Abstract

In this study, we empirically investigated the determinants of migrant ‎remittances for the five ‎countries that make up West Africa Monetary Zones ‎‎(WAMZ). Panel secondary data from ‎World Bank and International Monetary Fund ‎data bases for the period 1990-2016 were used for ‎the analysis. Both descriptive ‎statistics and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator was used for ‎the analysis. The ‎result revealed that remittance inflow into WAMZ was influenced by ‎‎unemployment rate, the level of financial sector development, exchange rate of ‎domestic ‎currency, real per capita income of recipient country, and the level of ‎development of source ‎country. However, lower migrant remittance was ‎associated with higher per capita income and ‎depreciation of exchange rate in ‎recipient country. The study recommends that the government ‎of countries in the ‎zone should make efforts to develop their financial systems and ensure that ‎‎exchange rate is market friendly to encourage migrants to remit more money ‎home. To encourage ‎remittance inflows into WAMZ the study recommends that ‎government of WAMZ should ‎strengthen their financial sectors through ‎implementation of appropriate regulatory measures.‎

Keywords: Determinants, Remittances, West Africa Monetary Zone