MULTINATIONAL - Support Project to improve Access to Financial Services for the Vulnerable Population Groups in the WAEMU Zone (PAASF - UEMOA) (AFDB-P-Z1-H00-117)

Countries
  • Benin
  • Burkina Faso
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Ivory Coast
  • Mali
  • Niger
  • Senegal
  • Togo
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • African Development Bank (AFDB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Oct 30, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
West African Economic and Monetary Union
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 11.17 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 11.20 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Jun 4, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Apr 16, 2025


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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

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.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

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

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/request-for-documents. Under the AfDBÕs Disclosure and Access to Information policy, if you feel the Bank has omitted to publish information or your request for information is unreasonably denied, you can file an appeal at https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/appeals-process  

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/  

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How it works