Abstract
“Access to finance for all” has gained attention in the international development agenda in recent years. In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the issue of financial inclusion is set at the level of priority but in several dimensions of financial inclusion, countries of the union lag behind the Sub-Saharan Africa and Asian benchmark countries. In this paper, factors that are important for financial inclusion in WAEMU are identified and it is investigated whether these factors are correlated with self-reported barriers to financial inclusion using the 2014 Gallup World Poll Survey data. The results indicate that, the variables: Age, sex, employment status, educational attainment and level of income are all determinants of financial inclusion in WAEMU. The results of the relationship between self-reported barriers and individuals’ characteristics show that, educational level and income are the main factors that affect the livelihood of reporting a barrier to financial inclusion in WAEMU. Key words: Personal finance, financial institutions, West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU).
Highlights
The process of ensuring that everyone who wants to have access to financial services can do so at affordable prices within an appropriate regulatory framework has become one of the major socioeconomic challenges of the present century for all development actors worldwide
The aim of this paper is to identify individuals-level factors that matter for financial inclusion in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) where financial inclusion is set at the level of priority in the development agenda but in several dimensions of financial inclusion, countries of the union are still lagging behind Sub-Saharan Africa and Asian benchmark countries (IMF1, 2015) and where no study has identified these factors
The aim of this paper is to determine the extent to which individuals‟ characteristics act as push or pull factors in their decisions to use financial services and how selfreported barriers to financial inclusion are associated with these characteristics
Summary
The process of ensuring that everyone who wants to have access to financial services can do so at affordable prices within an appropriate regulatory framework has become one of the major socioeconomic challenges of the present century for all development actors worldwide. The agreement at the 2013 G20 meeting to go forward with the agenda of financial inclusion and the objective to achieve universal access to finance by 2020 are informative. This is because it is widely recognized that a better access to financial services is crucial for economic growth, and reducing poverty and unequal inclusion in development (Allen et al, 2016; World Bank, 2014). Bruhn and Love (2009) have investigated using difference-in-difference strategy, the impact of the Bank Banco Azteca‟ financial services expansion in Mexico
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