Every transfer app in Britain would like you to believe the price of sending pounds to Accra or Nairobi is the number in the fee box. It isn’t. It’s that number plus whatever the company shaves off the exchange rate, and the second part is usually bigger.
Good news, and there is some: both corridors have plenty of providers, and the World Bank figures show real price differences between them. The less good news: competition doesn’t make the average cheap. You have to pick.
What the World Bank actually measured
The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database collects quotes for sending the equivalent of 200 US dollars, which on its UK pages works out at about 120 pounds. For the third quarter of 2025, with data gathered in August of that year, the pages show this:
| Corridor (Q3 2025) | Average total cost | Average fee | Average rate margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK to Ghana | 4.24% | 1.20 GBP | 3.24% |
| UK to Kenya | 3.43% | 1.96 GBP | 1.80% |
Check the arithmetic on Ghana: a fee of 1.20 on 120 pounds is 1%, and 1% plus a 3.24% margin gives 4.24%. So about three-quarters of the cost of that average Ghana transfer sits in the exchange rate, not the fee. In Kenya the split is closer to even.
Kenya’s page also shows the spread between the best and the worst quote that collection window. The cheapest listed option came in at 0.38% in total. The most expensive, a cash-agent service, was at 16.16%, with a rate margin of 9.58%. Same corridor, same quarter. Read that twice. A sixteen percent cost on a small transfer isn’t an exotic trap; it was sitting in a public table.
These are snapshots. Providers change prices, and a figure from August 2025 tells you about shape, not today’s bargain. For a current number, look at the World Bank page for your corridor and note the quarter printed at the top.
A worked example (illustrative numbers)
Take a made-up sender, call her Dana, who sends 250 pounds a month to a relative in Ghana. Say the mid-market rate on the day is 15.00 cedis per pound. The real number is on the GBP to GHS page; 15.00 just keeps the sums readable. At mid-market, 250 pounds would turn into 3,750 cedis.
Now apply the corridor average: fee of 1.20, margin of 3.24%. After the fee, 248.80 pounds get converted, and the rate is cut by 3.24%. Result: 3,611.08 cedis. That’s 138.92 cedis short of the ideal, roughly 9 pounds in value.
Suppose Dana finds an option with a 0.50 pound fee and a 1% margin, both illustrative. She’d receive 3,705.07 cedis, only 44.93 short. About 3 pounds gone instead of 9.
Small, per month. Over a year of 250-pound sends, which is 3,000 pounds, the gap between a 4.24% route and a 1% route is about 97 pounds. And if she were sending to Kenya instead, using the Kenya average of 3.43% against the cheapest listed 0.38%, the yearly figures would be roughly 102.90 pounds against 11.40. Nobody gets rich from the difference, but it’s a free dinner out, every year, for a one-time comparison.
Ghana: the cedi that doesn’t sit still
Ghana’s cedi has had a wild ride. According to the Bank of Ghana’s latest Monetary Policy Report, as reported by the Ghana News Agency, the cedi appreciated 42.6% against the dollar in the first half of 2025, then lost 7.9% against it in the first half of 2026 (and 6.5% against the pound, 5.3% against the euro). The central bank said it came under heavy pressure in May 2026 and partly recovered, and that it expects relative stability over the medium term, helped by remittances. That last sentence is a forecast, and nobody should plan a budget on a central bank’s optimism.
So what does a swinging currency mean for a UK sender? That the day you send matters more than usual, and that a rate that looked cheap six months ago may not be cheap now. Rates refreshed hourly on our converter at least tell you what you’re comparing against.
Size of the flow explains why everybody wants your business. Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama said in April 2026 that remittance inflows reached nearly 7.8 billion dollars in 2025, against about 4.6 billion the year before. The biggest source he named was the United States, not the UK. Providers know where the volume is, and prices follow volume.
Mobile money payouts
Plenty of Ghanaian recipients prefer a mobile money wallet to a bank account. One thing that has changed in your favour: the 1% E-Levy on electronic transfers was repealed, and MTN Ghana’s help centre says it stopped applying on 2 April 2025. Ordinary mobile money service charges still apply, so ask your provider whether the recipient or the sender picks those up. Not “free”, just no longer taxed on top.
Kenya: calmer currency, different traps
The Kenyan shilling is the dull one, and for a sender dull is a compliment. The Central Bank of Kenya’s own daily table showed about 130 shillings per dollar on 2 November 2026, and the bank kept its policy rate at 8.75% at its 7 October 2026 meeting. It listed inflation at 7.3%. The shilling has not lurched the way the cedi has. Treat these as an early-November 2026 snapshot.
A steady shilling means the rate you compare is mostly about the provider, not about luck. See the live GBP to KES page, pick the amount you want your relative to receive, and compare.
Monthly, the CBK publishes monthly diaspora figures. For September 2026 its table shows about 438.5 million dollars in total, with North America at roughly 49% and Europe at roughly 22%. The page doesn’t split out the UK, so we won’t guess a UK share. A separate CBK household survey, reported by The Star, put the 12 months to May 2025 at a record 7.2 billion dollars, with the United States the largest source at 43.5%.
Where do Kenyan transfers go wrong? Mostly at the payout end. If your relative collects cash from an agent instead of receiving it in a wallet or bank, that is where the Kenya table’s 16% outlier lived. Cash is sometimes the only option, and sometimes worth a premium. Just see the premium before you pay it.
Check the firm before the rate
On protection, the FCA says non-bank payment providers must be authorised or registered, and you can confirm that on the Financial Services Register. Brand names can differ from the registered company, so look in the terms for the firm behind the brand. Two sobering lines from the FCA: if a non-bank provider fails, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme won’t protect your money; and while e-money and authorised payment institutions must safeguard customer funds, some small payment institutions don’t have to. Ask what protection a firm has.
For a one-off 250-pound transfer that settles in minutes, the exposure window is short. For a large sum sitting in an account for days, it isn’t.
A five-minute routine
- Fix the amount your relative should receive, in cedis or shillings, not the amount you send.
- Get two or three quotes for that figure, each with the fee and the final amount shown.
- Divide the receive amount by the mid-market rate to see the real leak.
- Check the provider on the FCA register, using the registered company name.
- Decide the payout: wallet, bank or cash, knowing each has its own price.
That’s it. If a promotion drags you toward a worse total because the first transfer is free, do the sums for the second one as well.
Nothing here is financial or legal advice. Prices and rules shift, so confirm details with your provider and take advice on tax if you need it.
Sources
- World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide: United Kingdom to Ghana
- World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide: United Kingdom to Kenya
- Ghana News Agency: Cedi records 7.9 per cent depreciation against US dollar in first half of 2026
- MyJoyOnline: Ghana records 7.8bn remittances
- MTN Ghana: E-Levy removed
- Central Bank of Kenya: MPC retains the CBR at 8.75 percent
- Central Bank of Kenya: Diaspora remittances
- The Star: Kenya’s remittances hit 7.2 bln USD
- FCA: Using payment service providers
Checked: November 2026
