West Africa

Triple Jump Advisory Services has been working in the region since 2006 and has provided capacity-building services and cost-sharing grants to 10 MFIs in 6 countries. We currently have 8  active partnerships in:
Benin, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

Background
West Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world, with 12 out of the 14 countries ranked as lowest in the global Human Development Index. Most of its population lives on subsistence farming and the percentage of people living on less than a day ranges from 50% to 92%.

The microfinance sector in West Africa is diverse and includes thousands of institutions, many of which are cooperatives, especially in the francophone countries. Though most of them are small and fairly weak , there are several large and successful MFIs which, in some countries, dominate the microfinance sector.

Recent trends indicate that the demand for credit has overtaken the demand for savings and individual loans are outpacing solidarity lending. The greatest challenges faced by many institutions center around issues of good governance, weak systems and poor infrastructure, lack of trained personnel, lack of product diversification, increasing competition in urban areas and, more recently, liquidity shortages.

With thanks to Vernal for the clickable map