Our West Africa regional office celebrates 20 years

Our presence in West Africa is nothing new: we've been actively involved in the region since 1970! In collaboration with a number of partners, including the Canadian government, we were instrumental in introducing the first legislation governing microfinance in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) zone. We also contributed to the creation, consolidation and growth of several cooperative financial networks that have become leaders in their respective countries.

In 2004, we sought to formalize and perpetuate this commitment by setting up a regional office in Dakar. With a strong local team, this office is a privileged pole of expertise which dynamically and competently dedicates itself to the economic empowerment of vulnerable populations, and in particular of women and young people.

In 2024, our Dakar regional office celebrates its 20th anniversary: a milestone of which we are very proud, and which we celebrated on June 25 in the presence of around a hundred people, including representatives of the Senegalese and Canadian governments and several other partners.

Looking back over 20 years of development

Over the past two decades, our West Africa regional office has carried out dozens of projects in some fifteen countries, and collaborated with a multitude of organizations to strengthen the economic autonomy of vulnerable populations. Here's a brief overview:

• Between 2004 and 2008, with the DELISA project (Développement d'une expertise locale en implantation de systèmes informatiques en Afrique), the office helped numerous inclusive finance institutions computerize their operations.
• Between 2008 and 2014, it implemented the TANDEM project, which developed training modules on governance and professions associated with inclusive finance, trained national trainers and consultants, and transferred them to the Professional Association of Decentralized Financial Systems (APSFD).
• In 2015, the office carried out the first national survey on financial inclusion in Senegal (EIFIS) on behalf of the Microfinance Directorate, which established benchmark values for the main indicators in this field.
• Between 2015 and 2020, it participated in the implementation of the Integrated Nutrition Project (PINKK) and the Skills Training Employment Program (STEP) in Senegal, which, among other things, strengthened the financial autonomy of 7,765 women and nearly 100 young graduates of vocational and technical training establishments.

Currently, our West Africa regional office is implementing several major projects aimed at accelerating the energy transition and strengthening the climate resilience of agricultural producers.