According to the Central Bank of West African States ( Bceao ), as of December 31, 2018, the ecosystem of
digital financial services registered thirty-three (33) financial services initiatives.
These initiatives, specifies the institution, in its "Annual report on digital financial services in
UEMOA, year 2018", are supported by institutions and partners.
“Partnerships between banks and telecommunications operators: sixteen (16) in number, they
represent almost half of the initiatives in the Union.
Partnerships between banks and financial technology providers (Fintech), which emerged in 2017:
These partnerships have in common to offer users payment solutions via mobile (payments
merchants, P2P, B2P transfers, electronic invoicing, etc.) Seven (7) partnerships of this type have been identified
in the countries of the Union", details the Bceao .
Regarding electronic money institutions, the BCEAO informs that there are eight (8) of them in
the Union: seven (7) of them are subsidiaries of telecommunications operators, in particular groups
Orange, Mtn, Tigo, in addition to the Qash Services structure.
Microfinance institutions authorized as Eme are currently two (2) in number, namely
Asmab in Benin and Celpaid SA in Ivory Coast.
The distribution network of financial services via the mobile phone is essentially composed of
main distributors, sub-distributors and bank automatic teller machines (Gab).
The race to extend the network has led to the proliferation of service points, with a strong change in the
number of sub-distributor agents.
“Over the period from 2017 to 2018, the number of financial service points via mobile telephony experienced a
increase of 63.4%, from 312,376 to 510,448, including 448,493 sub-distributors, 61,485 distributors
main and 470 ATMs.
This indicator is based on the global declaration of the actors taking into account all the partnerships with the
multi-service points.
In this regard, the implementation of a geolocation system, for better visibility on the network of the
territory by financial and non-financial institutions, becomes a necessity for the reliability of data
of financial inclusion", adds the Bceao .
The activity rate of these service points stood at 63.4% at the end of December 2018 against 68.0% a year earlier.
early. Overall, the increase in the level of activity of service points is proportional to the increase in points
of services noted in Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Togo.