Remittances: A Foot in Cuba's Development Door? Claire Luke - Devex Impact
go to original April 10, 2015

A 20 Cuban pesos bill. Under a general license, Americans can now remit to family, entrepreneurs and humanitarian groups in Cuba without a limit. (Molly Breslin)

As donors await changes to Cuba’s legal landscape that could allow them to begin funding work on the island nation, aid is taking shape in other forms: remittances and private donations.

Cubans, who can now receive quadruple the amount of remittances than allowed previously, are using the extra income for basic everyday provisions and to support burgeoning small businesses. The few aid organizations working in Cuba are also seeing expanded resources thanks to newly eased money transfer restrictions. This activity, experts say, is serving to develop the country despite the lack of official development assistance.

The opening of money flows is indeed dramatic. Americans can now remit to family, entrepreneurs and humanitarian groups under a general license without a limit, and to Cuban nationals at $2,000 — up from the previous $500 — per quarter, according to U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control reforms enacted Jan. 16.

And with new money comes new opportunity, said Mavis Anderson, senior associate at the Latin America Working Group.

Read the rest at Devex Impact

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