Cape Verdean emigrants sent an average of US$750,000 per day in remittances to the archipelago in the first half of 2022, a 40% increase over the previous year.
In contrast, remittances in foreign currency sent by immigrants in Cabo Verde to their countries of origin decreased by 18 percent in the first half of the year compared to 2021, according to data from the Central Bank.
According to a Bank of Cape Verde (BCV) statistical report this month, remittances sent by Cape Verdean emigrants rose to nearly US$158 million from January to June 2022, compared to US$113 million in the same period last year.
Cape Verde has about 500,000 inhabitants, but the government recently estimated that more than 1.5 million Cape Verdeans live in Europe and the United States, and the archipelago’s financial system depends on remittances from these emigrants.
In the first six months of the year, Cape Verdean emigrants in the U.S. again led in remittances to Cape Verde with a total of nearly US$45 million, followed by emigrants living in Portugal with over US$37 million.
According to the Central Bank, remittances from Cape Verdean emigrants to the archipelago already increased by 22.1 percent to a record 25,833 million escudos in 2021.
In all of 2020, Cape Verdean emigrants sent remittances worth more than US$232 million, a new record and an increase of almost 3.5 percent compared to the previous year.
IMMIGRANTS
According to preliminary data from a statistical report by the Bank of Cape Verde (BCV), the archipelago’s immigrants, who mainly work in the tourism and construction sectors, sent just over US$11 million in remittances from January to June 2022.
In the first half of 2021, these remittances to their countries of origin exceeded US$13.2 million, according to the central bank.
Remittances from immigrants in Cape Verde were down 23 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
Portuguese immigrants in Cape Verde continue to lead in remittances with nearly US$4.4 million in the first six months of this year, followed by immigrants from Senegal and Guinea-Bissau with US$1.05 million and US$477,000, respectively, which are also the two most numerous foreign communities in the archipelago.