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By Malorie Manaois

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant distress to families and economies worldwide, including to migrants and their remittances. Given the job losses and high rates of unemployment due to this virus, the World Bank had initially predicted remittances to decline by 20 per cent in 2020. However, for most receiving regions, this prediction has been contradicted by either steady or increased volume of remittances. In October 2020, the World Bank revised its predictions to 7 percent in 2020 and 7 percent in 2021, a total decline of 14 percent as a result of COVID-19.

Though the onset of the pandemic earlier in March 2020 saw the remittance flows…

CEO of DMA Global, Leon Isaacs, was recently interviewed by Juliana Olayinka about the gaps in online spending between the UK and Nigeria and how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected these trends as well as that of digital payments in the informal sector. 

The interview was broken into two main sections. The first question, which can be viewed here, revolved around the hurdles to increased online spending and why countries such as Nigeria are far behind the numbers seen in countries like the UK. The 2nd question, which can be view here, revolved around how COVID-19…

This blog post are our CEO’s, Leon Isaacs, speaking notes from the 16th June, 2020 International Day of Family Remittances event 'Building Resilience in Times of Crisis' organized by IFAD. Leon spoke during the session on ‘Digitalization of remittance: Towards the full coverage of the last mile.’

It is great to be on this webinar to celebrate the sacrifices and achievements of people who migrate.

I must say that, like many, I have been saying for years that digital is the only way to go to achieve SDG 10.c. The current manual remittance processes are…

DMA Global (DMAG)[1]  calls upon all key players of the Remittance Industry to join its pledge to endorse the “International Day of Family Remittances”.

The International Day of Family Remittances was adopted by the United Nations in 2018. June 16 is officially designated as the International Day of Family Remittances. The Day aims to recognise, and raise global awareness of, the fundamental contribution migrant workers make to the well-being of their families and communities back home, and to the sustainable development of their countries of origin. Remittances represent one of the largest single financial force for good on the planet.

At around US…

by: Leon Isaacs

As I sit here in France, a few hours from lock-down, I count myself fortunate that I am safely at home, feeling well, not in the target age group for the virus (well, not yet anyway) and in a caring community.  However, it did get me thinking about others who may not be as fortunate as me and, of course, about the impact of the virus upon individuals, communities and countries.  I also thought about its potential impact on remittances and because I can’t add to all the words that have been written about the health impact upon individuals I thought it might be useful to share my thoughts on the impact of Coronavirus on remittances and hopefully to begin a…

by: Poppy Isaacs

As the foundation of our business here at DMA Global is remittances and their effects, it wasn’t until I became a ‘sender’ during a project last year, that I fully understood the process. The concept of sending money is a pretty simple one, but in practice, it is not always so easy. Through my experiences, I have a lot more understanding of some of the big frustrations that migrants in particular have with sending money home.

The flow of how to send money online is as follows:

DMA Global was doing a project which involved interviewing Syrian refugees living in Germany who send money to their relatives living in Jordan. We were trying to…

by: Nana Boakye-Adjei

Interest in diaspora finance has grown significantly over the last decade. International organisations, donors and governments are all keen to identify how best to mobilise funds from the diaspora to support economic development. International remittances, as is widely known, is one of the easiest ways that diasporas contribute to their countries of origin. Whilst ideas, pilots and policies have been developed to go beyond remittances and create an environment that expands the role of the diaspora in economic development, there have been limited success cases.

One area where the interest has continued to be high is…

by Daniel Aron

Why are money transfers so vital to Syria?

In times of crisis, remittances exist as an invaluable source of income, and can act as a lifeline, enabling the acquisition of food, water and other essentials required to survive. Syria has been embroiled in a deteriorating humanitarian crisis since civil war broke out in 2011, including distressing reports of “genocide” in Aleppo[1]. However, the situation appears to finally be improving, with the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, last week envisaging 2017 as a year of diplomacy and rebuilding in Syria following five years of ‘ruthless war’[2]. Recent figures estimate that…