Abstract:
Africa like the rest of the world is ageing. The number of elderly people on the continent is
rapidly increasing. This increase in the number of older people who require care is occurring
at the same time when the resources of Africa is getting depleted and the traditional social
welfare system that is the extended family has begun to decline. This has resulted in the shift
of care responsibility away from the extended family to the nuclear family where adult
children have to care for the elderly by sending remittances in the form of cash to assist in
their upkeep.
While there is a lot of academic and policy attention to the linkage between international
migration for work and the economic development of a specific country through remittances
that result from this pattern of migration, the influence of remittances on migrants own family
members who stay home especially the elderly is seldom explored thus this research aims
investigate the contribution of remittances to the care of the elderly in Ablekuma South.
The methodology used for data collection and data analysis comprised both qualitative and
quantitative research methods. A total of 65 survey questionnaires were administered as well
as conducting in-depth face-to-face interviews with 10 elderly persons. Descriptive statistics
were used to analyze quantitative data, which was complemented by qualitative data.
The findings in this study suggest that the formal support mechanisms available are
inadequate to cater for the needs of the aged. Also informal support systems in the form of
the extended family has broken down which has shifted responsibility of the care of the
elderly to adult children who respondents felt had the moral obligation to take care of them.
Furthermore the study showed that remittances received by the aged were inadequate to take
care of their needs with a majority of them spending a large proportion of the money they
received on food rather than on investments or savings.
