The stream of Remittance money by money transfers to Nicaragua continues to flow into Nicaragua. The first two months of 2021 show a 9.4% increase (US $ 27.7 million) year on year for January and February. The numbers were US $309.7 million dollars received compared to US $283 million for the first two months of 2020.
Of the January and February 2021 combined figure, 60.3% was sent from the USA. Spain was in second place at 16% bumping Costa Rica down into third place with 13.7%. Two other countries where a measurable amount of Nicaraguans live, work and send money home were; Panama (3.6%) and Canada 1.2%. Those top 5 countries accounted for almost 95% of the total remittances sent back to Nicaragua in the first two months of 2021.
Of the approximately 6.5 million registered Nicaraguan citizens, 20% are believed to live abroad (many born abroad and with children born abroad). Most of them live in the USA, Spain and Costa Rica. Anecdotally, the comment that comes next in most reports is that an estimated 50% of those are undocumented.
The money transfer sector has become a big business and many of the popular providers of the service cater to monthly remittances in a very competitive market. The top service providers have cut their own path through the field of fees, exchange rates and banking traditions to provide a slick, cost effective service where they are making money on the volume of clients and regular transactions.
With that in might, consider that money transfers to Nicaragua from those living abroad were US $1.85 Billion in 2020 (a 9.4% increase on the entire year will put 2021 at well over US $2 Billion). Most of that comes out of wages paid twice monthly or monthly. A percentage or flat fees were paid on those transfers, not to mention the exchange rate differential. Looking at the 9.4% increase in the first two months of this year, the business won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Monito is a useful site that aims to help you save on transfer fees and exchange rates. They describe their mission as “trying to build the Booking.com of the money transfer world”. Some sample transfer requests we made produced results from WorldRemit, Zoom, Remitly, Wise, Skrill, Pay Pal and Instarem.
Results come up much the same as booking a flight on line. You then pick the supplier based on what they are offering you for your individual request. (Make sure you scroll down through all of the information after the selections.
