Summary

The Association d'Entraide des Femmes, or Women's Self-help Association (AssEF), is a microfinance institution that was created in 1995, with the aim of contributing to sustainable improvement of the socio-economic situation of women in Cotonou (Benin) and its periurban areas. AssEF today is a network of 112 savings and credit associations and 26 savings and credit funds, with an umbrella structure that provides management, training and financial support to these savings and credit associations and savings and credit funds. The network has approximately 25,000 members, who are primarily poor women engaged income-generating activities in the informal sector.