According to the World Bank, Togolese nationals in the diaspora remitted over $500 million in 2018, placing the country in 10th position in Africa in terms of remittances. As a measure of GDP, the remittances accounted for 8.5%, exceeding the country’s foreign direct investments and official development assistance.
Are you looking at sending money to Togo to support your family, invest in assets, pay for your siblings’ education or contribute to social welfare? It helps to know the best ways of sending money, the advantages of the different money transfer methods, and factors to look at before sending.
The best Ways of Sending Money to Togo
You can send money to Togo in a number of ways depending on your preferences, cost implication, reliability, and proximity of the transfer service provider to the recipient.
International Wire Transfer
Traditionally, most people in the diaspora have been using the banking system to send money. For instance, if you are in the US, France, or Germany, you can send money to a bank in Togo provided that the recipient has an active bank account.
The disadvantages with interbank transfers are that they charge high transfer fees and often offer unfavourable exchange rates. It’s not uncommon to lose up to 7% of the transfer amount through exchange rates differentials. It may also take up to 5 days for your money to get to the recipient depending on the number of correspondent banks involved in the transfer chain.
Online Money Transfer
This is a much faster, cheaper, and reliable transfer method for sending money to your loved ones in Togo. Money transfer providers such as Ria Money Transfer allows you to send money to a recipient in Togo through direct bank deposit into their account or sending to a pick-up location where they can collect the money in cash.
Sending money through online money transfer providers is simple as all you need is to sign up for a free account in under 2 minutes, pay for your transfer through a bank debit, credit card, debit card, or cash deposit at an agent.
Once your transfer account is funded, you can send directly from the provider’s website to the recipient or use a mobile application. Ria money transfer, one of the frequently used providers on the Togo remittance corridor, has a new and improved downloadable mobile app available both on Android and iOS platforms. Some of the new features they have introduced include:
- Share order details – This allows you to send the transfer code the recipient will need to claim the money. You can share the order details through email, WhatsApp, or text.
- Camera card information upload – This is an easier way to upload your credit card or debit card information onto the Ria platform without typing the numbers.
- New location finder – Just type the city address, state, or zip code and a list will be populated for you to pick a convenient location.
- Transfer tracking and alerts directly to your phone
- Logging in through Touch ID or Face ID
What You Need to Send Money to Togo
For you to send money to Togo, you will need to provide the recipient’s name as it appears on their government-issued ID, their phone number, and location address. In case you are depositing directly to their bank account, you will need their bank account number and their swift code.
There may be restrictions on the amount of money you can send. When sending through Ria, you have up to $3000 per transfer per day through Ria.
Why Use Money Transfer Services to Send to Togo
The advantages of online money transfer methods are that they are fast, reliable, convenient, and secure. In terms of exchange rates, providers such as Ria use mid-market rates that are midway between buy and sell quotes.
It takes about 15 minutes to transfer money to Togo if you pay for your transfers using a debit or credit card and even faster if the recipient chooses cash collection. Bank processing times may differ depending on the time of transfer, day of the week, number of correspondent banks, and type of bank used.
In conclusion, sending money through online money transfer methods gives you a much better option to using banks whether you are sending small amounts or large amounts of money.
Staff writer
