NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 11- Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) through its support to Pangea Trust is set to host a Validation Workshop event that will further deepen discussions on how best to unlock and explore diaspora remittances.
The virtual event comes at the back of a recently released report dubbed Diaspora Remittance Mapping Study by Blue Inventure Limited and Samawati Capital Partners in partnership with Pangea Trust.
According to the report conducted from April to June 2021, there continues to be a high appetite for investment opportunities in Africa from the diaspora.
However, the current investment decisions seem to be largely driven by the availability of information on existing investment opportunities and more importantly, the level of knowledge on how to choose the most optimal investment options.
Most of the current diaspora investments are nearly evenly split in investing in their businesses, family members’ businesses and investments in the money market with very few direct investments into other local businesses.
It further highlights that the biggest obstacle to enabling investments for the diaspora is accessing appropriately packaged and credible information on available investment opportunities. 23 percent of the diaspora report this as a major hurdle during the investment process.
At the same time, the report states key drivers for growth in Islamic investments which include: Oil Revenues for the Islamic states, increasing propensity for ethically driven products, the rise for enabling institutions, and growth for the Muslim population.
The event to be held on October 27, 2021, aims to bring together over 200 key partners from the African diaspora, investors, and financial institutions from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia to provide criticism, suggestions, and counsel based on the report.
“We have organized this workshop with the support of SIDA seeking to make a stage for revolutionizing startup and SME funding by giving an opportunity to the diaspora to become a key player within the environment,” said Anne Lawi, Managing Director at Pangea Trust.
The forum will also provide an opportunity for the key stakeholders to compare notes while sharing input on the pertinence of the Kenyan diaspora mapping.
Consequently, players from different sectors will highlight where the inflows from foreign countries are situated, the number of remittances sent by the Kenyan Diaspora, and how these remittances are utilized within the country.
At the same time, players will also provide criticism on the relevance of the report to Pangea Trust’s vision of expanding reinvestments of the diaspora settlements from 5 percent to 30 percent by 2030.
The event comes at a time when the Central Bank Of Kenya Governor Patrick Njoroge, during the Post Monetary Policy Committee meeting, projected that inflows into Kenya in 2021 could rise to USD 3.4 billion in 2021 as compared to USD 3.09 billion recorded in 2020.
The United States of America has remained the top contributor of inflows into Kenya.
Cash inflows from abroad have remained Kenya’s largest source of foreign exchange since 2015 and also provide a livelihood to low-income households in the country.
