TBT DESK: Bangladeshi migrants sent home nearly $27 billion in 2024. But according to new figures, a staggering $1.48 billion — about Tk 16,200 crore — vanished into high fees, hidden charges and unfavourable exchange rates.
The data were presented in Dhaka on Saturday by international fintech company Nala, which operates a money transfer app. At a press conference, Nala’s Head of Growth in Bangladesh, Mahmudul Hasan, said the losses represent 0.33 % of the country’s GDP and more than 2 % of the annual budget.
Globally, migrants remitted around $905 billion last year, with $57 billion lost to similar costs. “For Bangladeshi workers abroad, every dollar is hard-earned,” Hasan said. “It is not just family incomes that suffer when charges erode remittances — the entire national economy feels the strain.”
The figures illustrate how unfair transfer costs remain a global issue. For many Bangladeshi families, remittances are the lifeline covering food, education and healthcare. Yet a portion of this lifeline never arrives. One migrant worker in Italy, quoted by Nala, said: “I work double shifts to send money home. But when my family receives less than I sent, it feels like a betrayal.”
Nala is promoting itself as a solution. Its app, launched in 2021 and already used by over half a million people, allows migrants in the United States, the UK and 21 European countries to send money to Bangladesh without fees. Hasan pledged that the company would ensure “every Tk arrives home safely, quickly and transparently.”
He argued that with migrants often too busy or too far from banks and exchange houses, digital services can reduce both cost and stress. “We want Bangladeshis abroad to proudly say: Our money reaches home fast, free and safe,” Hasan said.
Nala’s expansion reflects the wider push for transparency and lower costs in global remittance flows. For Bangladesh, where nearly 10 million citizens work overseas, it could mean billions more arriving in households rather than disappearing into charges.
For now, the lost billions remain a sobering reminder: the true price of remittances is still paid by those who can least afford it — migrant workers and their families.
