The Effects of International Remittances on Households’ Internet Access

Abstract

International remittances are said to provide a lifeline for households in developing nations by boosting their welfare in several respects, such as consumption and healthcare, because of a lack of enough financing or insufficiency of it. However, many households are unable to access and use the internet for activities that would improve their welfare, despite the rising amounts of remittances to Nigeria that reached at $25 billion in 2018. An investigation becomes necessary because there is still a dearth of substantial literature on the topic. This study, therefore, assesses the relationship between overseas remittances and households' access to and usage of the Internet for welfare-enhancing activities. For the analysis, which used the probit model and logit regression, the World Bank's 2015/2016 General Household Survey (GHS) data for Nigeria were used. In comparison to local sources like profits, the findings show that remittances have a minor influence on households' decision to connect to and utilise the internet for things like e-trading and other internet-enabled transactions. The results also show that, compared to their urban counterparts, rural households have a 22% worse ability to access and use the internet, with owning a mobile device (such as a phone) being the single most important factor affecting a household's ability to access the internet. To address the issue, the report suggests that local councils house digital education sessions for rural families, subsidise the purchase of mobile phones for low-income households, and improve rural infrastructural decays.