Opportunities within West African Financial Flows

A recent study(PDF) on Financial Flows within West Africa made the following findings:

(1) presently, the aggregate value of these transactions may amount to US$2 billion annually in remittances from migrant laborers and perhaps as much as US$8 billion in trade settlements in the four countries.
(2) Overly restrictive government policies, the inconvertibility of the currencies in the region, corruption and traditional patterns have the effect of driving potentially legitimate business into the informal economy.
(3) Small and medium sized enterprises, in particular, have
difficulty gaining access to formal mechanisms and institutions that could normally provide business loans and financial settlement services. Concurrently, the region is vastly underbanked.
(4) Microfinance institutions and credit unions service a part of this informal market but they operate under financial regulations that make it difficult to service the full needs of their clients. The settlement of international transactions is particularly difficult.
(5) The use of technology may help provide options that will encourage greater use of formal systems

via West AfricanTrade Hub