Inward remittance in the country increased slightly in the just concluded year as expatriate Bangladeshis sent 8.65 per cent more money in the year despite the fact that an additional 10 lakh Bangladeshi people got overseas jobs in 2017.
Country’s remittance inflow increased by $1.07 billion to $13.54 billion in the year of 2017 from $12.46 billion in the previous year, according to the Bangladesh Bank data released on Monday.
Although the figure of remittance inflow has increased in the year, it is not consistent with the growth in the number of Bangladeshi workers abroad, BB officials said.
The mismatch also raises suspension of increasing amount of fund transfer through illegal channels including mobile financial services, they said.
Although the number of overseas Bangladeshi workers has been increasing, they are mostly unskilled and most of them do odd jobs in different counties, former adviser to an interim government AB Mirza Azizul Islam told New Age.
Earnings of Bangladeshi workers are the least considering per capita earnings of expatriates of some other Asian countries due mainly to lack of skill, he said.
To get rid of the problem, making workers skilled is a solution so that they can earn higher wages, Mirza Aziz said.
Besides, steps have to be taken for diversification of markets instead of focusing only on the Middle East, he said.
Speaking about the fund transfer through digital hundi including mobile financial services, he said the central bank needs to take measures in this connection.
The inward remittance decreased by 18.65 per cent to $12.46 billion in 2016 compared with that of $15.31 billion in 2015.
The remittance inflow stood at $14.94 billion in 2014, $13.83 billion in 2013, $14.17 billion in 2012 and $12.16 billion in 2011.In December 2017, the private commercial banks received $857.05 million in inward remittance, while the state-run commercial banks got $286.77 million, foreign commercial banks $12.26 million, and specialised development banks got $11.10 million.In December, Islami Bank Bangladesh received the highest amount of remittance — $258.05 million — among the private commercial banks, while Agrani Bank got the highest amount — $108.17 million — among the state-run banks.
Source: New Age.
