Innovating for Financial Inclusion in Benin: Client Outcome Assessment Report

Facilitating the linkage of savings groups to financial service providers is an area of innovation in financial inclusion which has received
a great deal of attention in recent years. The UNCDF MicroLead Expansion initiative tasked Freedom from Hunger (now merged with Grameen Foundation) with testing savings group-linkage models in Benin through the Innovating for Financial Inclusion in Benin (IFIB) project. The goal of the IFIB project was to link at least 120 savings groups to a formal savings account held with ALIDé. By the end of the pilot project, 219 savings groups had accounts with ALIDé, exceeding the original target.

This report documents the client outcome pre- and post-test assessment results conducted with savings group members of the non- governmental organization FADeC who were supported by the microfinance institution ALIDé with linkages to a formal savings account through a mobile money solution.

A simple pre- and post-test assessment conducted with approximately 70 randomly-selected savings group members occurred between 2017 and 2018 and evaluated savings group membership, linkages, and member perception of the product on offer.

Results reveal notable increases in access to mobile phones; ownership and usage of mobile money accounts; access to financial education linking women to mobile money and savings accounts; as well as ownership of savings accounts. Many savings group members grew more confident in using mobile money and accessing their savings account as they gained more knowledge through financial education and having recognized the importance of having group savings accounts.

Connections with ALIDé agents were seen as integral in the building confidence among women SG members. Members highly valued that the ALIDé agents were readily available and were respectful and appreciative towards them as clients. Although radio messages were observed to be a good method to reinforce the value of acquiring a savings account, it was still eclipsed by actual interactions with FADeC and ALIDé agents. An interesting point of discussion and further action would be the low awareness of the members of other ALIDé financial products aside from savings accounts. It would be interesting to explore how savings group members could be made aware of the utility and advantages of using other financial products.

At the conclusion of the IFIB pilot project, ALIDé was convinced of the market opportunity of linking savings groups to their financial services. Field staff and management continued to believe that the digital approach to serving savings group members would reduce their operational costs as well as the costs that members would face in traveling to make deposits or withdrawals, the time waiting at the counter, and especially emotional and confidence barriers faced by many. In short, ALIDé continued to see the IFIB project as a win-win proposition for ALIDé and the future market they desire to serve better and more deeply.