"We are excited to move forward and see these plans come to fruition and foster economic development in sub-Saharan Africa," said Western Union's Anne McCarthy, executive vice-president of corporate affairs whose firm has been implementing an economic empowerment programme called "our world, our family".

The facade of the J & J International Food Store is covered by signs of money transfer firms Western Union and the Kiswahili-featuring latest addition, Kenya's own innovation, Safaricom.

The two money transfer firms linked up a month ago, adding to Safaricom's own transfer system aimed at the Kenyan diaspora in the United Kingdom.

"We have seen only a few Kenyans coming to use the service, but I believe that is because it is new," said the Nigerian trader, one of over 400,000 Western Union agents in 200 countries. He volunteers that the money transfer business has been a big boon as Africans come in to shop as well as send money home.

Collectively Africans from sub-Saharan Africa transferred over $11 billion home (2007 World Bank numbers), and an African Development Bank study showed in a number countries surveyed, this accounted for between 9 and 25 per cent of their home countries' GDPs.

In Kenya where Central Bank has been seriously tracking the inflows, the amount in 2008 hit $611 million (Sh45.8 billion). By November of 2009, $552 million had been remitted to Kenya.

But that includes only formal channels like the banking system, bureaus and money transfer systems.

"Our survey shows that monthly remittances inflows have normalised to average $50 million during the eleven months to November 2009," said director of research Charles Gitari Koori in remarks posted on the CBK web site.