IOM is working with the Nicaraguan bank BANPRO to provide financial
education to remittance-receiving families in the capital, Managua,
and in the cities of Chinandega, Estelí, and Masaya, which
have experienced large migration flows in the past decades.

Since the project began in October 2010 following an agreement
between IOM and BANPRO, more than 3,000 men and women who receive
remittances from family members in the United States (56 per cent),
Costa Rica (28 per cent) and Spain (11 per cent) have received
financial education training.

It is estimated that close to one million Nicaraguans are living
outside the country, of which more than 50 per cent are
economically connected either by the remittances sent to families
left behind, investments, or the consumption of goods exported from
Nicaragua, known as "nostalgic" products.

In 2009 remittances sent to more than 600,000 persons in
Nicaragua amounted to USD 915 million, which represent 13 per cent
of GDP.

The IOM project, funded by the Spanish Agency for International
Development (AECID by its Spanish acronym) began with the training
of 14 financial educators on providing advice to remittances
recipients on the importance of creating a budget and increasing
their savings, as well as on the available bank products.

According to Manuel Orozco, of the Inter American Dialogue in
Washington D.C., USA, less than 20 per cent of families in Latin
America that receive remittances have a bank account due to lack of
knowledge of the banking system and little or no offer from banking
institutions.

In Nicaragua, only one-third of remittance-receiving families
have a budget and although even fewer have bank accounts, an
estimated 40 per cent reported saving informally.

A similar IOM project in Moldova proved that the families that
received financial education were able to create and stick to a
budget, increase their savings and manage their debts and financial
risks more efficiently.  The six-month project carried out in
2007 worked with 7,000 bank clients; 80 per cent of the
participants told IOM they welcomed the financial advice and would
continue to use bank services.

For more information, please contact:

Lindsay Edwards

IOM Nicaragua

E-mail: "mailto:ledwards@iom.int">ledwards@iom.int