There is a perception that charity, donations and development aid given by the Global North is what is keeping African citizens and economies afloat. Yet the combined totals of foreign aid and development assistance to Africa in 2022 was $37-billion less than formal remittances from the African diaspora.

Because remittance money is often directly sent to people in rural areas who may have no other sources of income, the decrease in aid to African countries likely means that family members working abroad have been bearing the cost of everyday necessities normally associated with foreign aid, such as medical care. The Covid pandemic illustrated recipients’ reliance on remittances when other finance flows declined.

Note: 2022 is the most recent year the World Bank has aid data for. As informal remittance channels are not accounted for, the data likely only represents a fraction of the actual value received.