Why Sending Money to Africa Still Costs the Most, and What Is Changing
Sub-Saharan Africa is still the costliest region to send money to, at 8.78% per $200. A look at Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, mobile money and stablecoin use.
Key takeaways
- Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most expensive region to receive remittances, averaging 8.78% for $200 in Q1 2025 against a 6.49% global average.
- Intra-African corridors such as South Africa to Zimbabwe cost far more than diaspora routes from the UK or US, which are heavily competed.
- Mobile money is the cheapest funding method at 3.63%, and stablecoins already account for 43% of the region's onchain volume.
A mechanic in Johannesburg who sends 2,000 rand a month to his sister in Bulawayo loses roughly one rand in eight before the money arrives. A nurse in London sending pounds to her parents in Lagos might lose less than one in fifty. Both are sending money to Africa. The gap between those two experiences is the most useful way to understand why the continent remains the most expensive place in the world to receive a remittance, and why the average is starting to hide as much as it reveals.
The headline: still the most expensive region
In the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide report for the first quarter of 2025, sending $200 to Sub-Saharan Africa cost an average of 8.78%, the highest of any region. The global average was 6.49% (it eased to 6.36% by the third quarter), and South Asia, the cheapest region, was 4.80%. Six of the eight corridors in the database costing more than 20% started in Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa was the most expensive G20 sending country at 15.23%, according to the World Bank report.
That is far from the UN goal of cutting costs to 3%. On a $200 transfer, the difference between 8.78% and 3% is more than $11, every time.
Two Africas: intra-regional versus diaspora corridors
The most expensive transfers are often the ones within the continent. Third-quarter 2025 data shows sending $200 from South Africa to Zimbabwe cost 12.49% on average, mostly in fees, according to World Bank corridor data. By contrast, sending the equivalent from the UK to Nigeria averaged 1.96%, and from the US to Kenya 4.26%.
| Corridor ($200 equivalent) | Average total cost, Q3 2025 |
|---|---|
| South Africa to Zimbabwe | 12.49% |
| United States to Kenya | 4.26% |
| United Kingdom to Nigeria | 1.96% |
Why the difference? Diaspora corridors from London or New York are crowded with digital competitors fighting over a high-value market. Intra-African routes often involve smaller currencies, thin foreign exchange markets, cash-heavy senders, migrants without full documents, and fewer licensed providers. Those conditions protect high margins. Our broader look at the cost of sending money home shows the same pattern in other regions.
Africa's remittance problem is less about London to Lagos and more about Johannesburg to Harare.
Source McKinsey and Artemis Analytics estimate of 2025 payment volume; Artemis 2026 year-to-date; Visa via The Block, September 2026.
Nigeria: reforms, reserves and a $1 billion target
Nigeria is the region's largest recipient and the clearest example of how policy shapes flows. After years when a large gap between official and parallel exchange rates pushed money into informal channels, the central bank unified rates and tightened rules for money transfer operators. It now requires them to settle through dedicated naira accounts at authorised banks. In July 2026, Governor Olayemi Cardoso said formal diaspora inflows were running above $600 million a month and that the bank expected to reach about $1 billion a month by year-end, according to Nairametrics. Gross reserves stood at $51.86 billion in mid-July, the highest in more than 17 years.
Kenya and Ghana: one slowing, one surging
Kenya received $5.04 billion in diaspora remittances in 2025, up only 1.9%, the weakest growth in more than 15 years, according to Central Bank of Kenya data reported by ITWeb Africa. Roughly half comes from the United States, which makes Kenya sensitive to US labour market and immigration trends.
Ghana went the other way. Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama said inflows reached nearly $7.8 billion in 2025, up from about $4.6 billion, and Ghana's investment promotion agency noted that was more than double the $2.7 billion recorded as foreign direct investment. A more stable cedi and formal-channel incentives both played a part.
Mobile money is the cheapest route
Africa built the world's most advanced mobile money systems, and they show up in the price data. In the World Bank's first-quarter 2025 report, transfers funded through mobile money were the cheapest of all funding methods, at 3.63% on average. On the receiving end, mobile wallet offers for the US to Kenya route ranged from below 1% to under 5% in the latest corridor data. Our guide to M-Pesa and mobile money explains how wallets became the default last mile.
The limitation is that mobile money operators remain a tiny part of the international sample, and many cross-border mobile routes still depend on bank correspondents behind the scenes.
Where stablecoins fit
Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto use. Chainalysis estimated the region received more than $205 billion in onchain value between July 2024 and June 2025, up 52%, with Nigeria alone at $92.1 billion and stablecoins making up 43% of transaction volume, as reported by Mariblock.
The reasons are practical. In countries where the local currency has lost a large share of its value in a few years, holding dollars is a savings decision, not a speculative one. Stablecoins make that possible on a phone, without a foreign currency bank account.
Much of that is trading, savings in dollars and business payments for imports rather than household remittances. Still, for a shop owner in Nairobi paying a supplier in Guangzhou, or a freelancer in Accra paid by a European client, dollar stablecoins already work as a parallel rail. The challenge is the last step: turning stablecoins into local currency, legally and cheaply, in a country with capital controls or weak exchange markets. Our explainer on what a stablecoin is covers the basics.
What would bring the average down
- Opening intra-African corridors to more licensed digital providers, especially from South Africa.
- Interoperability between mobile wallets across borders, so money does not detour through Europe or the US.
- Exchange rate transparency, so senders can see the margin as well as the fee.
- Clear rules for regulated stablecoin on- and off-ramps, so a parallel rail can become a formal one.
Africa's diaspora corridors are already cheaper than the headline suggests. The work left is on the routes that carry the continent's poorest senders, and that is where regulators and providers should be judged over the next few years.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it so expensive to send money to Africa?
Costs are highest on intra-African routes with small currencies, thin FX markets, cash-heavy senders and few licensed providers. The World Bank put the regional average at 8.78% for $200 in Q1 2025.
What is the cheapest way to send money to Africa?
World Bank data shows transfers funded by mobile money were the cheapest method at 3.63% on average, and digital providers on diaspora corridors such as UK to Nigeria can cost under 2%.
Are stablecoins used for remittances in Africa?
Stablecoins made up 43% of Sub-Saharan Africa's onchain crypto volume in the year to June 2025, though much of that is savings, trading and business payments rather than household remittances.
Sources and further reading
- World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide main report, Q1 2025
- World Bank RPW: South Africa to Zimbabwe corridor
- Nairametrics: CBN targets $1 billion monthly diaspora remittances
- ITWeb Africa: Kenya remittances hit $5bn in 2025 as growth slows
- Graphic Online: Diaspora remittances hit $7.8bn
- Mariblock: Sub-Saharan Africa now the third fastest-growing crypto region
This article is for general information and is not financial, legal or tax advice. Figures are as reported by the sources above at the time of writing.
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