UNCDF MM4P facilitated a partnership between ALIDé, a microfinance institution (MFI), and the mobile operator MTN, to launch a new “bank-to-wallet” service. ALIDé wanted to quickly gain new clients (without investing heavily in opening new branches), collect more savings, especially in rural areas, and facilitate loan repayment operations and other transactions for its clients.

ALIDe customer testing the new bank-to-wallet service from her village

Thanks to the new partnership, ALIDé can now use the MTN platform to distribute its services throughout the country, particularly to areas without ALIDé branches.

ALIDé clients can now deposit and withdraw money from their account using their mobile phone. This new service allows withdrawals and credit repayment and encourages saving. In remote areas, clients who wanted to save were often discouraged by the difficulty of getting to a branch.

Nourou, who lives in Pobè, is one of ALIDé’s happy clients: “I used to pay more than 2,000 CFA francs to travel to a branch to do my transactions, and it took up the whole day. Now I do them at home in a minute, and it only costs me 200 CFA francs.”

In the outlying areas of Cocotomey, Allada, Porto-Novo, Bohicon, Calavi and Cotonou the service was quickly adopted by customers: 1,196 customers registered in just two months and there are already 374 active users.

“With the launch of the “ Bank to wallet " service, a revolution has begun in the financial inclusion of unbanked populations in Benin. We hope to continue the journey with UNCDF MM4P’ support until the end" explained Valère HOUSSOU, Managing director of ALIDé.

According to the 2017 Findex data, 34% of the unbanked adult population (over 15 years old) in Benin does not have an account in financial institutions because they are too far away; accessibility being one of the barriers to financial inclusion. The UNCDF MM4P programme tackles this issue by supporting initiatives targeting rural areas such as the Moov and Cash Zone projects. The challenge of financial inclusion cannot be met without equitable access to financial services.

With this new service, ALIDé expects to grow its active user base to 15,000 (including 6,000 users in rural areas) by 2019. To achieve this goal and to support the savings mobilization strategy of the MFI, the client base will have to be expanded and potential clients who do not have bank accounts or those who use informal tontines will need to be encouraged to join. Enlarging the client base is another challenge that will be assessed at the end of the pilot. For the time being, current ALIDé clients are already adopting the service.

For more information, contact bery.kandji@uncdf.org