The World Bank said remittances would decline sharply by about 23.1 percent to sub-Nigeria and other Saharan African nations this year, due to the economic crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic and shutdown.
Globally, a reduction of 20 per cent has been projected by the bank.
The projected fall, which would be the sharpest decline in recent history, is largely due to a fall in the wages and employment of migrant workers.
The migrants tend to be more vulnerable to loss of employment and wages during an economic crisis in a host country.
Remittances to low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are projected to fall by 19.7 per cent to $445billion, representing a loss of a crucial financing lifeline for many vulnerable households.
Remittance flows are expected to fall across all World Bank Group regions, most notably in Europe and Central Asia (27.5 per cent).
The Sub-Saharan Africa would follow with 23.1 per cent.
Remittances to the region totalled $48billion in 2018 and $57billion, last year.
South Asia would have a cut of 22.1 per cent, the Middle East and North Africa 19.6 per cent, Latin America and the Caribbean 19.3 per cent, and East Asia and the Pacific 13 per cent.
The large decline in remittances flows in 2020 comes after remittances to LMICs reached a record $554billion in 2019.
Even with the decline, remittance flows are expected to become even more important as a source of external financing for LMICs as the fall in foreign direct investment is expected to be larger (more than 35 per cent).
In 2019, remittance flows to LMICs became larger than FDI, an important milestone for monitoring resource flows to developing countries.