The National Agency for Supervision of Decentralized Financial Systems (ANSSFD) took stock last Thursday of the structures for collecting savings and providing funds that were not in compliance with the regulations governing the microfinance sector in Benin were closed between 2011 and 2019. Over 400 structures were closed over the period.

During a workshop to raise awareness among mayors on reforming the microfinance sector in the context of developing new mechanisms aimed at despoliating the population, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Economy et des Finances (MEF) indicated that the microfinance sector in Benin is “facing a major difficulty, that of coexisting on the same market, informal initiatives involving the collection of savings and the granting of credit by indelicate promoters who use fraudulent maneuvers to deprive our populations

For his part, Abdou Rafiou Bello, Director General of the National Agency for the Supervision of Decentralized Financial Systems (ANSSFD) believes that “the national census of savings collection and credit granting structures carried out in 2019 listed 38 initiatives carrying out microfinance activities on the fringe of the Rè regulations compared to 495 identified in 2011”. Thus, 457 illegal microfinance structures were closed during the period (2011-2019