• CBSL Chief Cabraal believes new dedicated mobile app and benefits could increase annual workers remittances inflow by a further $ 2 b to $ 9 b
• Sept 2021 remittances almost halved to $ 353 m from a year ago; nine months figure down by 9% to $ 4.5 b

The Government is to incentivise use of  new “SL-Remit” mobile app by migrant workers to send their earnings home, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal revealed yesterday. 

Speaking at the nationwide rollout of digital payment platform LANKAQR, Cabraal referred to some form of incentives without disclosing specific but said discussions were on-going. 

Earlier this month the CBSL said the dedicated national remittance mobile application “SL-Remit” will be implemented with the assistance of stakeholders, including the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka Banks’ Association, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and LankaClear Ltd.

SL-Remit was an outcome of a CBSL appointed Working Committee to study and suggest new remittance channels for Sri Lanka and to make recommendations on reducing the cost of remitting money, having identified the need to introduce new and low cost remittance channels with the objective of increasing the inflows of foreign remittances while discouraging the use of informal channels.

Cabraal said yesterday that due to various reasons the actual workers’ remittances weren’t coming via official banking channels and with the effective promotion and use of “SL-Remit” along with an incentive, the annual inflow of workers› remittances could be increased from $ 7 billion to $ 9 billion. 

Workers remittances have been on the decline in recent months with September inflow halving to $ 353 million from $ 703 million a year ago. Remittances in the first nine months were down by 9% to $ 4.5 billion from the corresponding period of last year.

 

Namal flags off nationwide rollout of LANKAQR to boost digital payments