Beyond internal trade in West Africa, the Report commissioned in 2006 by USAID (a United States charity) from Carana-Corporation (a specialist in mobilizing global poverty through the development of competitiveness), there is another circuit in which Westerners would very much like to be able to involve the banking system...
“ In the majority of cases, as in other parts of the world, West African migrants send remittances to their relatives. » (page 16)

But they wouldn't do it the right way...
“ Very few of these migrants have bank accounts. » (page 16)

The authors of the Report have therefore mobilized agents on the spot, so as to be able to take as precise a measure as possible of the dimension of these exchanges which are made in cash, that is to say free from all control and , in particular, that of the banks:
“ Interviews with almost 50 migrants in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal showed that on the whole: they all send money in proportion to their income. » (page 16)

This is a first piece of information... Let's go further...
“ The majority of these migrants have lived an average of six years in the host country, but are relatively young individuals, aged between twenty and forty-five. They send money to their relatives – mainly parents and to a lesser extent wives. » (page 16)

We are already inside the families… and the daily life of these… Do we want some precisions on the frequencies of sending? Here it is:
“ In the four countries where the interviews took place, migrants said they sent money whenever they could afford it, but in general they remitted an average of three times a year. » (page 16)

Investigators are even able to provide us with fairly precise figures:
“ With two exceptions, where the amount sent was well over US$2,000, the average amount sent each time was US$157. Migrants in Mali tend to send less than $100. » (page 16)

Given the number of migrants, the frequency of sending, and the amounts involved, this ends up representing considerable sums on the scale of West Africa... So much money and so much information that escapes to banks… Indeed:
“ The two most used shipping methods are friends traveling or drivers transporting goods across different West African borders. A third method used was to hand over the money personally when visiting the family. » (page 16)

Carana Corporation will not have skimped on the means to find out more...
“ This project included a national survey of 500 West African migrants living in Ghana. » (page 18)

Here is a rain of information… They give us an idea of what could be collected by the banks as soon as the “bancarisation” of the poor would be a fait accompli:
“ Migrant senders in Ghana send an average of around US$140 each time to their relatives in other West African countries. About 58% send less than US$200 and almost 10% send more than US$800. These migrants send money an average of three times a year. However, twenty percent send money more than five times a year. Thirty-five percent of them have lived in Ghana for up to four years, while thirty-seven percent have lived in Ghana for five to eight years. (pages 18-19)

When will the time come when ordinary citizens will be able to control, in the same way, family transfers of money and other material goods within the great families of international finance?

They would then go into details such as the following in the case of the observation of the “poor”:
“ As in other countries, the primary recipient of remittances is an immediate relative. More importantly, forty-two percent of the beneficiaries are the migrant's mother or father, and twenty-two percent are siblings. » (page 19)

However, in the case of the 500 West African migrants in Ghana, listed in this major survey, everything escapes the various authorities as well as the banks:
“ Most of the mechanisms used to send money are informal. The results show that 65% of migrants send money through a driver or take the money themselves. » (page 20)

If now we leave the sphere of the only manipulations of money, we can go even further in the intimacy of lives...
“ In addition to staying in touch by visiting their compatriots, migrants also regularly contact their families by phone or mail. In fact, eighty-six percent of West African migrants in Ghana use the telephone to keep in touch with family, and fifteen percent say they also send letters. » (page 21)

How frequent can such contacts be?
“ Twenty-two percent call loved ones at least once a week and only a small percent say they call very little. » (page 21)

But, above all, we learn that there are already technological instruments which are in the pockets of the "poor", and which could be used to spy, in a very discreet way, on this system of transfer of information and money which has installed in the heart of families:
“ A very important finding shows that sixty-two percent of West African migrants in Ghana, senders and non-senders, have a mobile phone. » (page 21)

How could the banks get to be present, too… in mobile phones and related technological products?

And under what title to obtain this favour? Better: how to come there as guests of the poor themselves? That is to say: inasmuch as they could almost become friends for them?... Friends who, of course, would have big ears and wide-open eyes, but who could do them a few favors for cheap?...