Egypt received over $219.4B in remittances over past decade, state aims to increase this by 10%

CAIRO – July 13, 2023: Egypt is seeking to boost the volume of remittances received from Egyptian expats by 10 percent year-on-year in the next 3 years to reach around $45 billion in 2026.

This was revealed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly in a recent press conference held in the New Administrative Capital. The conference reviewed the position of government proposals and a number of measures being implemented by the government across various sectors.

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

Remittances sent back to the country by Egyptian expats fell by 23 percent 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.

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, despite remittances dropping by 10 percent in 2022 to record $28.3 billion.

In its report, the World Bank placed 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 WB forecasts that Egypt’s inflow of remittances will recover in 2023 and 2024, while remittances to the MENA region are expected to climb by 1.7 percent 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.