BCEAO is a central bank serving the eight West African countries which comprise the West African Economic and Monetary Union, they include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. There are 94 million people living in this region, over half of which are living below the poverty line, and an estimated 85% are unbanked.

BCEAO is a key leader in West Africa’s efforts to scale up of financial inclusion. They bring a decade of experience in promoting sustainable growth in the microfinance sector, and recently undertook reform of microfinance regulation – which is significant because most of the banked population receive financial services through MFIs.

Despite the incredible hurdles of poverty in the region, some of the most innovative policymakers and other stakeholders, there is great potential for action in the region in the short term. BCEAO was the first regulator to permit a nonbank category of e-money issuers which indicates that a key area for knowledge sharing and collaboration this year is likely to mobile payments. AFI is looking forward to involving the eight BCEAO nations in its global network of policymakers and is working with them to identify opportunities.