Pacific Australian Labour Mobility scheme worker John Firiam says sending remittances to his wife and five-year-old daughter in Vanuatu is more important than ever after the recent twin cyclones.
Sending money from Australia to the Pacific is a costly exercise.
"The average cost of sending remittances to Vanuatu is 11 per cent, so that is pretty high; to give you a few comparisons, Tonga, and Samoa are just below 10 per cent," Professor Stephen Howes, director of the Development Policy Centre at the Australian National University, said.Professor Howes said the worldwide average was "about 6 per cent" and there had been a goal "to reduce that to 5 or as much as 3 per cent".
However, he said digital options had been slow to take off, stymied by connectivity and digital literacy issues. "We evaluate a number of providers, you can see the comparison, this provider has an X amount of fee, but there is actually a margin of exchange rate added," program manager Dee Raghavan said.
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