The 11th edition of the annual forum on internet governance in Benin was held this Friday 20 May 2022 at Azalaî hotel in Cotonou. This workshop brings together several actors of the digital and ICT sector around the theme “Digital and financial inclusion: challenges and perspectives”.
The Internet has become a platform for innovation and economic growth. This is what motivated the leaders of the Forum on Internet Governance in Benin (FGI Benin) to focus their reflections on digital and financial inclusion for this 11th edition of the forum.
In his speech, Vivien Assangbe Wotto, president of the FGI Benin network and telecom engineer association, emphasised the imbalance in access to banking services. “Traditional financial and banking services not only do not cover the entire country, but are also not always accessible to all social classes,” he said. Faced with this inequality of which “women, young entrepreneurs, households, SMEs, etc.” are often victims, he continues, “financial inclusion seems to us to be one of the main gateways to their financial empowerment and development.
As a result, this theme is not only central to economic and human development, but will also provide an opportunity to reflect on and develop strategies to make the Internet and associated digital services safer and more accessible to all.
The president of FGI Benin agrees with Samuel Guérineau when he says: “financial inclusion fosters economic development by allowing a growing share of households and SMEs to access a wide range of financial services at a reasonable cost”.
On this occasion, Adadja Goundé Désiré represented ARCEP’s regulatory council. According to the former Minister of Communication, good quality internet access for all is a great challenge that Benin has no choice but to take up. “How can we ensure that the Internet meets the real needs of all potential users? And how do we ensure that those who have no access today can find themselves in the system tomorrow? The ARCEP representative also zoomed in on the world in a few years time. “At the rate at which all this is evolving both globally and nationally, there will be no room for any other way of doing banking… other than digitally.
In addition, the Forum on Internet Governance in Benin (FGI Benin) is a multi-stakeholder platform (private sector, public sector, civil society, international organisations, technical community, etc.) for exchanges on the challenges of the internet and digital ecosystem in Benin. Its objective is to contribute to the global and sustainable development of Benin through the effective use of the Internet as a tool and vehicle for innovation.
