The financial inclusion rate in the WAEMU increased from 55.5% in 2018 to 60.1% in 2019, according to the latest report by la BCEAO. Comparing countries, Côte d'Ivoire has the highest inclusion rate at 77.9%, followed by Benin (77.8%) and Togo (72.3%).

In 2019, the rate of financial inclusion or overall rate of use of financial services (TGUSF) reached 60.1% within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). This was announced by the  Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in its 2019 report on financial inclusion in the region.

This rate is up 4.5 percentage points compared to 2018, which had a financial inclusion rate of 55.5% according to the new report. The document states that this situation is explained by an increase in the contribution of electronic money to the use of financial services in the region. The utilization rate of e-money services rose by 5.4 percentage points to 39.6% in 2019.

By country, Côte d'Ivoire now has the highest financial inclusion rate (77.9%). It thus surpasses Benin (77.8%), champion in 2018, which is followed by Togo (72.3%), Burkina Faso (70.9%) and Senegal (70.0%). Niger, meanwhile, has a financial inclusion rate of 17.5%, one of the lowest in the sub-region despite an increase compared to 2018.

In terms of growth, Guinea-Bissau (+19.0 percentage points) led the way, followed by Côte d'Ivoire (+10.8 percentage points), Mali (+4.5 percentage points) and Benin (+3.4 percentage points).

It should be noted that in terms of banking, Togo posted the best performance of the union, last year as in 2018. The strict banking rate (TBS), which measures the percentage of the adult population holding an account in banks, postal services, national savings banks and the Treasury, reached 25.1% in the country, placing it ahead of Benin (24.8%), Burkina Faso (23.2%) and Guinea-Bissau (20.3%) for a regional average of 18%.

As for the expanded banking rate (which takes into account the TBS, plus users of microfinance services), it stood at 78.5% in Togo, the highest rate ahead of Benin (72.2%), Senegal (52.0%) and Burkina Faso (43.4%), for a regional average of 39.7%.

It should be noted that some rates have been refined to take into account the phenomenon of multibanking in the region, which manifests itself in the holding by the same person of several accounts in one or more financial institutions.