remittances_in_the_context_of_covid_19_africa_120620

area of the survey 16 . People who do not have access to internet, a bank account or a bank are considered to be in a situation of greater financial exclusion. This means they could be more likely to face difficulty in a context of stay at home or lockdown measures in response to Covid-19 because they will have less digital and financial tools for adapting how they receive remittances. All of these basic indicators satisfy the statistical requirements for building a composite indicator. The resulting composite indicator (see Figure 14) ranks the countries from the lowest (Mauritius) to the highest (Niger) level of financial exclusion in terms of the extent to which people who are dependent on remittances have access to digital and financial infrastructure. In a context of stay at home or lockdown measures in their countries, people who are dependent on remittances in Niger, Guinea, Madagascar, Burkina Faso and Tanzania may be less likely to be able to continue to receive incoming transfers. By contrast, the populations of Mauritius, Cabo Verde, Namibia, Tunisia and South Africa who are dependent on remittances are better placed to be able to adapt to the crisis in their countries by having access to digital and financial infrastructure which will enable them to receive remittances without having to leave their homes.

16 Afrobarometer sample design is a clustered, stratified, multi-stage, area probability sample. The primary sampling unit/enumeration area are randomly selected after the national sample is stratify according to the main sub-national unit of government (state, province, region, etc.) and by urban or rural location. The survey dataset provides a set of characteristics of the area to which interviewed individual belongs (e.g. availability of a supermarket, cafe, market stalls, petrol station etc.). Detailed information on sampling procedure is available at https://www.afrobarometer.org/surveys-and-methods/sampling-principles. Last accessed 29 may 2020.

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