Prime
Stanbic cuts cost of cross border money transfer
Cross border money transfers through FlexiPay are expected to reduce by at least 50 percent. Photo / File
What you need to know:
- The partnership between Stanbic and IFAD seeks to reduce the value of money being eroded through sending charges paid to agents by migrant workers
The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Stanbic Bank have signed a partnership that seeks to cut the cost incurred by migrant workers while send money back home to Uganda.
The partnership, which will be implemented through FlexiPay, Stanbic’s flagship digital payment platform, will reduce the value of money being eroded through sending charges paid to agents by migrant workers.
IFAD expects the cost to reduce by at least 50 percent.
Data indicates that the average cost of transferring money to Uganda by migrant workers is 11.3 percent, which is way higher than the global average of 6.25 percent and Africa’s 8.35 percent.
The partnership under Prime Africa Initiative, will promote affordable digital remittances in rural Uganda through FlexiPay, which enables simplified onboarding of unbanked Ugandans to access financial services.
The partnership will initially enable migrants in Kenya and Sweden to send money to Uganda at a transaction fee of less than 3 percent.
Uganda is among the top 10 recipients of remittances in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2022, international remittance flows to Uganda reached $1.2b, but were below pre-Covid-19 levels of $1.4b in 2019. Uganda’s remittance mostly come from Europe, Middle East, and US.
