Should I keep sending money home, or set up a plan? How families use both
Keep sending money: it pays for the things only cash can, and nobody should stop. A plan does the one job money sent home cannot do, which is to make sure a doctor is seen and someone qualified is watching, without you having to be there.
By Kinship · Updated 19 September 2026 · 5 min read · Information, not advice.
What a remittance is good at
- Speed. Most UK to Nigeria transfers land in minutes.
- Flexibility. Rent, food, school fees, a generator repair, a funeral: cash covers all of it.
- Dignity. Your mother or your brother decides what to do with it.
- Cost. About 2% on average through the apps, and less with the cheapest.
What it cannot do
- Guarantee that money for a check-up becomes a check-up. Cash goes to the most urgent thing that week.
- Get someone treated before the bill is settled. Many Lagos hospitals want a deposit first, HMO card or not.
- Tell you how they actually are. A transfer receipt says money moved. It says nothing about blood pressure.
- Put a qualified person in the room. Nobody visits because a transfer landed.
What a plan is good at
A Kinship Plan is held in the member's own name and paid for by whoever chips in. Kinship Well gives them health benefits through a hospital network in Nigeria, used on a card, with a doctor to talk to in the app. Kinship Visits put a qualified nurse at their door on a rhythm you choose, for up to three hours, and every visit ends in a plain update to everyone who chips in. A named Kinkeeper, a registered nurse, reads every report and is the person the family knows by name.
Kinship Well starts from £39 a month and visits from £60 a month. Several relatives can share one plan, so a plan that would be a stretch for one sibling is small split three ways.
How families put the two together
- The plan covers the health side and the checking-in. The monthly transfer covers everything else, and often gets smaller because it is no longer the emergency fund.
- When something happens, the first call goes to the Kinkeeper rather than to the group chat, and the family gets one account of it instead of six.
- The person in Nigeria keeps control. The plan is theirs, the money is theirs, and the updates go to the people they chose.
Questions people ask
Can I pay for the plan from the UK?
Yes. Supporters pay in pounds from the UK or anywhere else. The member does not need a card.
Does a plan replace the money I send?
No. It replaces the part of it that was an emergency fund for healthcare, and it adds a person. Everything else you send stays as it is.
Who we help
Start with your situation and see how the plan applies to it.
Who we helpRelated
Sources
- World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide, UK to Nigeria corridor
- Lagos hospital deposits (lagos.cool, May 2026)
- The Kinship Plan and prices
Prices in naira are quoted with their date because they move. Nothing on this page recommends a named provider.