Savings Products and Services in the Informal Sector and Microfinance Institutions in West Africa: The Case of Mali and Benin

Seeking to understand how poor people save in West Africa, the paper explains:

• The primary motive for saving is to have access to credit, although other reasons do exist (security, insurance, etc.);
• The main savings products and technologies offered in West Africa appear to have been developed according to the needs of target populations who seek a secure place to keep their resources that will also allow partial or total liquidity;
• Although there is relatively little diversification in the range of savings products proposed by networks, this does not appear to limit their capacity to mobilise savings;
• Savings mobilisation plays a decisive role in the institutionalisation process of MFIs by supplying them with autonomous resources at a lower cost;
• Banking systems remain concentrated in capital cities and large secondary towns, and reach only a very selective clientele;
• The informal sector remains dynamic and the majority of the population have recourse to it;
• Poor people are no longer prevented from having access to decentralised financial systems.

The paper concludes that efforts must be made to develop new products, create new alliances with the informal and banking sectors, and understand better savings practices among various social categories.