Migration, Remittances, and Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Koffi Yves YAO Department of Economics and Management Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d’Ivoire
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Auguste K. KOUAKOU Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d’Ivoire & Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, Côte d’Ivoire
This paper examines the essential role of migration and remittances in development across sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on Côte d’Ivoire. It demonstrates that these financial flows help alleviate poverty and stabilise the economy in the short term while fostering long-term development through investments in human capital, entrepreneurship, and social protection. However, several challenges persist: excessive reliance on remittances may hinder local productivity, weaken exports, and increase import dependency. The paper recommends policies aimed at economic diversification, enhanced financial inclusion, reduced transfer costs, and better-coordinated migration policies to maximise the developmental benefits of remittances.
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by RITHA Publishing under the CC-BY 4.0. license, allowing unrestricted distribution in any medium, provided the original work, author attribution, title, journal citation, and DOI are properly cited.
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