Nigeria was ranked, According to The World Bank, as the 5th largest remittance market behind China, India, Philippines and Mexico. The top recipients of officially recorded remittances for 2013 are India (with an estimated $71 billion), China ($60 billion), the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22 billion), Nigeria ($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion).
Based on a report in the Nigeria Communications Week, the Nigerian Ministry of Finance announced last week the remittance market is at its highest in history reaching $10.4bn in the 6 months of 2014 and continues to show strong growth.
Echoing this statement, Mark Roden, ding* CEO, confirmed growth of their services to the country commenting: “ We have seen 255 per cent increase in mobile top-up being sent to Nigeria as the Nigerian Diaspora continue to recognise top-up as a convenient complement to money remittance.”
ding* sends mobile top-up, instantly, to any phone, anytime, anywhere and serves 130 countries but said that Nigerians have been quick to understand how top-up can complement money remittance by putting small values directly on to mobile phones enabling users to communicate and use data as they wish.
On www.ding.com, people can instantly top-up the mobile phones of their loved ones in Lagos or Abuja – or anywhere in the country with airtime being delivered in just 3 seconds.
This year, the amount of remittance sent to Nigeria will surpass all other years and this growth is reflected in the trends of international top-up to the region with analysts at ding* expecting a record year for mobile top-up too.
Commenting on the growth Roden added: “Money remittance goes a long way to supporting the infrastructure of a country. Mobile top-up does the same thing – but on an individual basis. The growth we’ve seen in Nigeria demonstrates just how important a topped-up mobile phone is to people around the world.”
There are almost as many phones as people in Nigeria with 94% of the population owning a mobile device. Recognising the potential these phones have to improve individual daily lives, the Diaspora looks set to continue powering these phones through www.ding.com.
