Benin’s average nominal interest rate on bank loans rose from 7.24% in 2024 to 7.32% in 2025, while the rate across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) fell from 6.76% to 6.69%. The contrast emerges from the annual financial inclusion report published on Monday, October 26, 2026, by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO).
Benin’s increase amounts to eight basis points, compared with a seven-basis-point regional decline. Its lending rate stood 0.63 percentage points above the eight-country average in 2025, highlighting differences in bank borrowing costs within the currency union.
Loans cost more than in Senegal and Ivory Coast
According to the BCEAO, the average nominal bank lending rate was 5.98% in Senegal and 6.26% in Ivory Coast. Mali recorded 7.35% and Togo 7.49%, while Niger and Guinea-Bissau stood at 8.77% and 8.73% respectively. Benin therefore remained below several regional peers, but above the WAEMU average.
On the savings side, the average nominal interest rate paid on bank deposits in Benin reached 5.58% in 2025, up from 5.34% in 2024. The 24-basis-point rise exceeded the WAEMU increase, where the average deposit rate moved from 5.26% to 5.41%. In Benin, better average deposit remuneration thus coincided with a higher average cost of borrowing.
High financial inclusion despite the rate gap
Benin also recorded a 92.8% overall financial-services usage rate among adults in 2025, up from 89.8% a year earlier, the highest in WAEMU. The regional figure was 76.1%. This broader indicator includes electronic money and microfinance, unlike the cited interest-rate series, which cover banks alone because comparable microfinance data were unavailable.
The BCEAO notes that Senegal saw a five-basis-point increase in average borrowing costs in 2025, against eight basis points in Benin. Ivory Coast, by contrast, recorded a 19-basis-point decline, the largest fall among the countries mentioned in the report.