The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) has published on its website the official list of approved credit institutions in the Union as of December 31, 2025. Behind this technical document emerges a structuring reality: a dense banking system, but heavily concentrated on a few key markets.
There are a total of 161 credit institutions, divided into 136 banks (including 22 branches) and 25 banking financial institutions. Ivory Coast and Senegal each have 33 credit institutions, including 29 banks and 4 financial institutions. Together, these countries account for over 40% of the Union’s banking workforce.
Next come Burkina Faso and Niger (20 credit institutions each), Mali and Togo (17 each), Benin (15), and Guinea-Bissau (6). Niger stands out for a relatively high number of non-banking financial institutions. In addition to banks, BCEAO lists 25 specialized financial institutions, 30 approved payment institutions in 2025, and nearly 300 large microfinance institutions.
According to Financial Afrik’s compilations, UEMOA would have 22.2 million bank accounts in 2024, and around 24 million in 2025. In this breakdown shown in our chart, Ivory Coast leads with over 7 million accounts, followed by Burkina Faso and Senegal.
