Egyptian expats sent $219.4B in remittances over 10 years, Egypt plans to increase it by 10%

In a recent conference, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced that the Egyptian state is seeking to increase the volume of remittances received from Egyptian expats by 10% year-on-year in the next 3 years to reach around $45 billion in 2026.

Madbouly revealed that there are strategies being prepared and implemented to support this goal during a press conference held in the New Administrative Capital earlier this week to review the position of government proposals and a number of measures being implemented by the government across various sectors.

Over the past 10 years, Egypt has received over $219.4 billion in remittances from Egyptian working abroad, according to the latest data by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Remittances from Egyptian expats plummeted by 23% during the first half of FY2022/2023, reaching $12 billion compared to $15.6 billion recorded during H1 2021, the Central Bank of Egypt revealed in May.

Despite remittances dropping by 10% in 2022 to record $28.3 billion, Egypt was ranked among the top recipients of remittances in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in 2022 according to a report by the World Bank in June.

The WB also ranked Egypt as 6th among low and medium-income countries that received remittances in 2022. The top five low- and middle-income countries that received the largest amount of remittances on record in 2022 were India ($111 billion), Mexico ($61 billion), China ($51 billion), the Philippines ($38 billion), and Pakistan ($30 billion).

The World Bank predicted that remittance inflows to Egypt would recover in 2023 and 2024. Remittances to the MENA region are expected to climb by 1.7% in 2023, before increasing by 1.8 percent in 2024 to reach a record $67 billion.

The World Bank's report highlighted that MENA's remittances declined by 3.8 percent to $64 billion in 2022 from $67 billion in 2021.