According to bank provided information, the PAASF-UEMOA project (Projet d'Appui a l'Amelioration de l'Acces aux Services Financiers des Saisons Vulnerables dans la Zone UEMOA) complements the PRDEN in that it targets the financial inclusion of vulnerable groups, notably women, young people, startups, MSMEs and rural populations, by leveraging digital technology. The PAASF-UEMOA is in line with the African Union's Digital Education Strategy and Implementation Plan covering the period 2023-2028, as well as its Digital Transformation Strategy for Africa (2020-2030). It is also aligned with West Africa's Regional Integration Strategy Paper (RISP) 2020-2025, notably through its contribution to priority area II, namely: "support for regional business development".

PAASF-UEMOA is an institutional support operation whose main development objective is to improve the financial inclusion of vulnerable population groups, especially women, young people, rural dwellers, MSMEs and startups, and to strengthen regional integration in the WAEMU zone.

The PAASF-UEMOA targets the UEMOA zone made up of eight (8) countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, with a total population estimated at 141.7 million in 2023, including around 69576240 women (50.4%) and 39757852 young people (28.8%). Direct beneficiaries of the project include:(i) SFDs. The project plans to reach at least 200 SFDs out of the 508 in the UEMOA zone to date, of which around thirty will benefit from "shared cost" support for the development of prototypes or the scaling-up of innovative financial products/services; (ii) one (1) million people traditionally excluded from the traditional banking system, including women (30%), people in conflict zones (2%), young people (40%), small businesses (15,000) and people in rural areas (35%); and (iii) national agencies responsible for supervising and promoting local financial services (8), as well as the WAEMU Commission, which will benefit from capacity-building. Indirect beneficiaries include technical and financial partners working on the issues of digitalization and financial inclusion, who will see further opportunities for intervention in the area.

Kouassi Bruno AKA
Payment Syst. & Digital Fin. Off., PIFD1
African Development Bank
b.aka@afdb.org
www.afdb.org

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ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

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