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Through the co-financing of more than 70 projects in over 50 countries since 2006, the FFR has proved that working in partnerships and leveraging the power of remittances can be beneficial for remittance families, supporting the achievement of their own Sustainable Development Goals.
Improving access and use of remittances towards financial inclusion
FFR activities are rooted strongly in evidence-based learning.
FFR invests in the creation of market intelligence and knowledge gathering to support decision-making at a project and programme-level; contribute to regional and global policy engagements; add to global market insights and trends; and to support and advocate for more enabled remittance environments.
FFR focusses on improving domestic and international remittance markets globally, so that senders and receivers can access secure, affordable and efficient services even in hard-to-reach areas and to often excluded groups including women, migrants and the rural poor.
FFR works to champion innovative new product development that responds to and meets the need of these clients.
Digitalization has revolutionized the way money is sent and received across borders, offering low-cost, safe, convenient and fast remittance transfers.
However, this requires senders and receivers to be financially included.
FFR projects link remittances to financial services and products, providing migrant workers with a powerful set of instruments to change their own lives and the lives of those back home.
Supporting Diaspora and returnee investment and entrepreneurship for economic & climate
FFR fosters the approach taken by impact investors towards diasporas, so that professional investment solutions adapted to the needs and constraints of these diasporas can become operational, channelling their savings into impact-generating businesses in their countries of origin.
Through entrepreneurship, the diaspora not only transfers capital but also skills and expertise, helping to strengthen local capacities and foster entrepreneurial ecosystems. FFR encourages entrepreneurial learning, while at the same time making the diaspora aware of the full range of investment solutions available to them, to enable them to maximize their impact.
FFR focuses on returnee migrants, leveraging their skills, experience and economic capital from their experience abroad to foster inclusive, sustainable and vibrant enterprise development in rural areas. FFR supports financial inclusion and business development of returnee migrants, to provide work opportunities close to home and mitigate the need to migrate.
In line with IFAD’s guiding principles, the FFR focuses on reaching the rural poor, in line with the SDG principle to Leave No One Behind. An estimated 3.4 billion people – around 45 per cent of the global population – live in the rural areas of developing countries. Remittances and diaspora investment are transforming lives of the rural poor, and FFR’s aim is to maximize this impact.
Smallholder farmers and poor rural people bear the brunt of climate change and the degradation of natural resources. People are choosing to migrate as the ecosystems on which they rely are undermined. FFR is committed to exploring ways that remittances and the diaspora can support climate resilience.
Women are remittance senders and receivers and are major contributors to rural economies, but face numerous challenges that men do not. Promoting gender equality is a key element of IFAD and FFR’s work to reduce rural poverty, improve financial resilience and economically empower women.
Today’s generation of young people, at 1.8 billion, is the largest ever. Unless we invest in rural areas, and develop strong rural economies with attractive prospects for young people, they will be forced to migrate – first to the city – and then, if they cannot find decent employment – across borders to neighbouring countries and beyond.
The RAI project, through a range of interventions, enhanced the consumer due-diligence (CDD) frameworks of partner remittance service providers (RSPs), enabling 360 thousand people in Africa to better access remittances. Between 2022 and 2023 Cenfri, through the PRIME Africa grant, provided technical assistance to remittance service providers (RSPs) in 7 African countries.
IFAD is partnering with APS under the PRIME Africa initiative to accelerate the uptake of digital remittance services among remittance recipients, and to remittance-linked microfinance services. The project focusses on rural recipients by increasing last mile agents’ interventions.
IFAD is partnering with Fidelity Bank Ghana under the PRIME Africa Programme initiative to enable remittance recipients in high-migration rural areas to increase their share of remittances saved in formal bank accounts. By targeting un(der)banked remittance recipients, Fidelity Bank is enabling termination of remittances directly into a savings account. Fidelity is partnering with Viamo to […]
IFAD is partnering with FADEV through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) Mali programme to implement a new venture capital investment solution for the Malian diaspora in France called YiriMali. This investment fund will provide diaspora members a formal and profitable investment vehicle to invest in SMEs in the agri-food sector in the […]
IFAD is partnering with Mama Money under the PRIME Africa initiative to maximize the impact of remittances sent by low-income migrants in South Africa to their remittance receiving families in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The project responds to the growing need of migrant workers in South Africa to maximize their net income, and that of their […]
The project objective is to address systematic data gaps in LAC remittance markets through collection, analysis and dissemination of market information flows and trends in the region. The LAC section of the web-portal RemitSCOPE 2.0 is expected to be publicly available in August 2024, and will complement the Africa section of the portal.
IFAD is partnering with Stanbic Bank Uganda (SBU) under the PRIME Africa initiative to promote affordable digital remittances in rural Uganda. In 2021, SBU launched a new e-wallet named FlexiPay, with a simplified onboarding process that facilitates un(der)banked clients. Leveraging on this new product, the IFAD project will enable the integration of cross-border remittances into […]
IFAD is partnering BankserveAfrica under the PRIME Africa initiative to promote competition among a diversity of RSPs through a regional and interoperable platform, TCIB, that promotes more affordable low-value cross-border payments in the SADC region. TCIB will improve the cross-border payment process, standardize compliance requirements, remove the need for complex bilateral cross-border arrangements, and create […]
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