The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published a report on mapping successful financing strategies and models for MSMEs and informal sector enterprises.

Micro, small and medium enterprises, including those from the large informal sector, are vital to the socioeconomic transformation of the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) - Benin, Burkina, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. The industrial transformation, export competitiveness, value addition and local participation in the natural resource sector, the green economy, the digital economy, and the much-needed job creation, all depends largely upon a striving MSME sector.

Yet, despite the rather robust banking network of the WAEMU, with 131 banking institutions and 21 finance companies, the 522 microfinance institutions, 46 life insurance companies, the region’s 27 domiciled private equity funds, 128 Fintechs, and a regional stock and bond exchange (BRVM - Bourse Regional des Valeurs Mobilières) common to all eight countries of the WAEMU; MSME access to finance continue to be a challenge in all 8 countries of the only economic and monetary union of the developing world.

Please read the full report here.