RURAL CREDIT

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The primary objective of the Rural Savings and Loan Rehabilitation Project is to help transform Benin's cooperative savings and loan system into a better managed, more efficient, and financially viable rural saving mobilization and credit delivery network. The project will assist a Government initiated institutional and financial rehabilitation program to restructure the rural financial sector by supporting existing cooperative rural savings and loan associations. These cooperatives are owned entirely by the rural population with no Government participation. The project provides for: (a) the institutional reform and restructuring of the existing saving and loan cooperatives; (b) restoration of cooperative members' savings and equity, depleted through accumulated losses in an inadequate policy environment, and frozen deposits in bankrupt commercial banks; (c) liberalization of interest rate policies on savings and loans; (d) training of cooperative administrators and staff; and (e) establishment of an accounting and financial control system.