Africa was the most expensive region to send money to last year, the World Bank says.

It costs an average of 9% to send $200 (£143) to sub-Saharan Africa as of the start of 2018, while the global average cost is 7%. Both fall short of the UN's sustainable development goal of 3%.

"While remittances are growing, countries, institutions, and development agencies must continue to chip away at high costs of remitting so that families receive more of the money," says World Bank report author Dilip Ratha.

The World Bank says $466bn was sent worldwide in 2017.

That's an increase of 8.5% since 2016.

The report says this was driven by economic growth in Europe, Russia and the US.

The body expects growth of at least 4% this year.

Nigeria and Egypt - two of Africa's most populous nations with large diasporas - are among the world's top remittance recipients, totalling $22bn and $20bn respectively last year.