Advans Côte d’Ivoire’s Chief Executive Officer Gaël Briot said: “Advans aims to serve over 120,000 rural clients at the end of four years. To do this, we want to provide them with the most adapted delivery channels for rural zones – namely mobile banking and agency banking.”

The project also plans to develop a full range of products and services for farmers including micro-insurance, loans and savings accounts. The farmers will also be trained on financial literacy to encourage them to save.

Gaël Briot added: “Having access to financial services will enable these clients to reinforce their incomes, improve their financial security and stability, and give them the capacity and tools to better manage their household finances. This will impact indirectly 720,000 people in rural areas.”

​Ivoirian farmers and financial inclusion

Advans chose to focus on rural clients in Cote d’Ivoire, and cocoa clients especially, because this target market is important to the country’s economic and social development but remains largely unserved by financial service providers. Some 800,000 small-scale cocoa farmers contribute up to 10% of the in Côte d’Ivoire’s gross domestic product. Around 6 million people are indirectly dependent on cocoa revenues.

More than four-fifths (86%) of smallholders own a personal mobile phone, which is an asset on which financial service providers can rely on to develop appropriate delivery channels. Some cooperatives have savings schemes for farmers to encourage them to put money aside rather than borrow, but they keep these savings in cash and take on the risk. They do not necessarily have a clear register of farmers’ withdrawals. Other farmers use traditional banks in the nearest town, but have to travel to get there, or have a mobile wallet with a limited savings amount.

​WSBI Managing Director Chris De Noose said: “With this project, Advans aims to tackle past challenges financial services providers have faced in widening financial services take-up by rural people. Innovation will be key in the project so as to shorten customer sign-up delays, better address certain barriers to opening accounts – especially the biometric ID card requirement – as well as capitalising on the potential of mobile banking.”

Contact:

James Pieper, media relations, WSBI, +32 2 211 1192 or at james.pieper@wsbi-esbg.org

Notes to editors:
​Ivoirian small holder farmers and financial access

Ivorian agriculture represents a nearly a fifth of the country’s gross domestic product, employs 68% of labour and represents 40% of export income (CGAP survey). Despite being vital to the economy, 72% of farmers are still below the poverty line and less than 10% have an account at a formal financial institution (CGAP survey).

​Studies have shown that although farmers do not have access to financial services, there is a high interest for all types of services. A recent CGAP survey found that the majority of Ivoirian small holder farmers believe that access to insurance (85%), a bank/current account (82%), a mobile money account (80%), savings account (76%) and loans (63%) are highly important for their households.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), smallholder farms are the backbone of agricultural production in developing countries. IFPRI notes that small, family-run farms are also home to the majority of people living in absolute poverty, and half of the world’s undernourished people. Four-fifths of the developing world’s food is a product of small-sized farms, says the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

About Advans Group

Paris-based Advans Group aims to respond to the need of small businesses and other populations who have ill-adapted, limited or no access to formal financial services. Created in 2005, the group takes strategic focus on rural populations subsidiaries in nine countries in Africa and Asia. Advans’ microfinance institution, Advans Cote d’Ivoire, was created in 2009 and opened in 2012 in Cote d’Ivoire serves 100.000 clients through a network of 19 branches in cities. It has a loan book of €92 million and €50 million in deposits.

About WSBI – The World Savings and Retail Banking Institute

WSBI represents the interests of 6,000 savings and retail banks globally, with total assets of $15 trillion and serving some 1.3 billion customers in nearly 80 countries (as of 2016). WSBI focuses on international regulatory issues that affect the savings and retail banking industry. It supports the aims of the G20 in achieving sustainable, inclusive, and balanced growth, and job creation, whether in industrialised or less developed countries. WSBI favours an inclusive form of globalization that is just and fair, supporting international efforts to advance financial access and financial usage for everyone.