The Advent of Islamic microfinance in Senegal

Abstract

In Senegal, as elsewhere in the WAEMU zone, access to credit for vulnerable micro entrepreneurs is a major concern despite the important role of traditional microfinance institutions. To effectively solve this problem, Islamic microfinance has been identified as an alternative offer, alongside conventional finance in order to give access to bank accounts to those underprivileged people that have not been sufficiently served by financial institutions. Thus, this article aims to study the advent of Islamic microfinance in Senegal. To do this, our research focuses on the history and role of the State of Senegal in the promotion of Islamic microfinance to finally present the characteristics of this new funding model for vulnerable populations often excluded from the traditional financial system.