A snapshot of financial inclusion in Togo
Thursday, 17 September 2020 16:52 
(Togo First) - The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has just published a report, Evolution of financial inclusion monitoring indicators in WAEMU for the year 2019. The document provides a snapshot of the state of financial inclusion in Togo and other Uemoa countries.
The main takeaway of the report which reviews statistics for the last 10 years, is that Togo has been undergoing its most rapid growth phase since 2017. Mobile money played a significant role in this dynamic.
The document shows that financial services points increased substantially in 2017, driven by solid growth in e-money services.
Also, while demographics are growing at a faster pace than new microfinance agencies, the latter seems to be getting closer to the people according to available data. Indeed, there are now at least nine microfinance structures for every 1,000 square kilometers, compared to 8 in 2010. For banks, there are now 9 compared to 2 in 2009.
The slower evolution of microfinance can be explained by the tightening of entry conditions in this sector after the ReDéMaRe scandal.
Overall, 53% of Togolese people aged 15 and above have accounts in microfinance institutions.
Adding banks, the post office, savings institutions, and treasury, this figure rises to 78%. It is estimated that 84% of Togolese aged 15 or older have at least one electronic account. But only 34% of these accounts are truly active.
At the end of 2019, the utilization rate of financial services was 72%, based on active ME (Electronic Money) accounts corrected for multi-banking, i.e. the extended banking rate + rate of use of electronic money services.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
