African Immigrant to Loved Ones
People are working overseas, just for sustaining income for their family back home and waiting their savings to keep their family happy. Especially in African countries, just for creating a better life for their families, millions and millions African are working in another country.
Fees for remitting money vary wildly between providers and countries. African migrants, who sent almost $60bn (£38bn) in remittances last year, pay the most, according to the World Bank. On average migrants sending money home to Africa lose 12% to fees. Moving money between African countries can cost much more – sending money to Tanzania from neighboring Kenya or Rwanda, for example, costs an average of 22% (or a $44 cut on $200 transferred).
Many experts would say how it is incredible that in a competitive environment there’s no reason these things should be more than 4%. It is not something justifiable.
According to Ismail Ahmed, founder of World Remit, an online transfer service said that the true cost of sending or receiving remittances in Africa was much higher than figures may suggest. “There are costs associated with going to a branch. In Africa, in many cases banks are in the cities, so people have to travel there, queue up, wait and then collect small amounts of money.”
The widespread utilization of mobile phone in Africa could make it cheaper to transfer money and easier for migrants to get to emergencies at home, said Ahmed. “Particularly in Africa, new technological changes are likely to have the biggest impact. Imagine somebody gets a text message in the middle of the night, saying that mum needs to go to the hospital, and they can send $10 instantly. In the long term, these things will transform money to transfer in Africa.”
Several firms have come up lately to face the dominance of major platforms, such as Western Union, considered to control 18% of the worldwide remittance market with roughly 500,000 outlets in 200 countries.
In 2011, Western Union handled $81bn in remittances roughly $1 in every $5 sent. It made 80% of its revenue from remittances that year, including almost $3.6bn in transaction fees and $1bn in foreign exchange income. In Africa, exclusive deals with several banks saved it to a share of the market above 70% in countries, such as, Mali and Rwanda.
Western Union said its average cost to users was roughly 5%. “Our pricing varies from country to county depending on a number of factors, such as security and local regulatory compliance. On the amount of money being sent,” it said, adding costs was affected by factors, including national laws and the amount being sent. “Western Union has acknowledged the increasing consumer which need to send money from one African country to another. However, in Africa there is a new trend that Winngie is the new one that has been well received and became so common for many immigrants in Africa. Winngie goes in a high demand in Africa and gets a high level attention for many immigrant workers.
Winngie has an easy interface and sustainable client background that many immigrants use this platform as a transfer way to their loved ones back in their country. Winngie is a new trend according to data has been published in a Rwandan local university. It is the fact that Winngie has very cheap, no fee and no cost at all. Calling free as cheap might not sound good, but Winngie has a good way to change all African immigrants’ perspective.
Western Union is losing its grand to Winngie as booking.com whereas Expedia loses its own to Airbnb. In Africa, especially Saharan Africa and East Africa, the business itself is ongoing to Winngie. The platform itself became a phenomenon in Africa.
It changes the system and makes transfer small amount to overseas to love ones easier than ever. Not anymore high costly transfer fees and killing exchange rates are the issue for African immigrants. African immigrants are happy to use Winngie for their well worked hardly earned money.
Reference:
Why do Africans pay the most to send money home?
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jan/30/africans-pay-most-send-money
