This archive report was first published on 9 September 2019.
Remittances from Kenyans living and working abroad dropped by Sh7.4 billion in July, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). The bank's latest data shows that Kenyans sent home $224 million (Sh23.3 billion) in July, a 24 percent fall from $295 million (Sh30.6 billion) recorded in June.
This decline is attributed to the end of a tax amnesty for the return of taxable assets stashed abroad, which ended on June 30th. The tax pardon was announced by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich in 2016.
Despite the drop, the 12-month cumulative remittances to July 2019 increased to Sh280 billion from Sh259 billion recorded in the same period the previous year, reflecting a 11.1 percent increase.
CBK's weekly bulletin noted that North America contributed the largest share of July 2019 remittances (48 percent), followed by Europe (20 percent) and 31 percent from the rest of the world.
As CBK stated in its weekly bulletin, published on September 9, 2019, "The 12-month cumulative inflows to July 2019 increased to $2,778 million from $2,501 million in the 12 months to July 2018, reflecting a growth of 11.1 percent."
