Episode 18: Inclusive by Design: Transforming Banking in Madagascar (August 2026)

So Madagascar is actually, I've been working in 17 African countries and Madagascar is not one of them.

Unfortunately, I must say, because I'm rather familiar with the West Africa francophone rather than, you know, the other side of the continent.

And Madagascar, the information I have without having sort of stayed on the ground is that it's of course a very polarized country.

The gap, rich and poor, is still very high.

middle class is rising but not not that fast and there are a lot of challenges right you know and you know we could start by saying that especially for a bank right to figure out uh you know how to give money to a to a to a micro smes that's often are like one person company right like uh we're talking Well, maybe not.

Let's start by the definition of MSMEs, you know, and maybe the challenges that are specific, you know, to the country, because I actually don't think that a lot, even a lot of people who are familiar with Africa would know how the Madagascar ecosystem is.

Yes, you're right.

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world.

I think officially it's somewhere between 10th and 5th poorest country in the world by statistics, by GDP per capita.

the MSME ecosystem here is rather what we call informelle in French, informal.

So it's businesses here generally, okay, to give a perception about the...

The country itself, yeah, the population of the country is about 31 million people currently.

The median age is 19.4 years.

Yeah, so it's half the population is below 19 years old.

It's a very young, one of the youngest, not the youngest country in the world.

At the same time, there are 13 banks functioning in the country, one of which is more mobile money institution that got banking license recently.

So if we don't count this institution, simply because it's slightly different animal for the banking market.

The total number of all customers of all banks.

So Madagascar, to give you a perception about the country, Madagascar counts 31 million people.

The median age of the population of the country is about 19 years, 19.4 years.

Yeah, that means that half of the country's population are younger than 19 years.

There are 13 banks operating currently in the country and about 10 microfinance institutions.

The total number of all customers of all banks in the country is about 1,700,000.

So if you imagine 16 million of adult population, only 1.7 are bankers.

But this also includes companies and private accounts.

So Madagascar is actually, I've been working in 17 African countries and Madagascar is not one of them.

Unfortunately, I must say, because I'm rather familiar with the West Africa francophone rather than, you know, the other side of the continent.

And Madagascar, the information I have without having sort of stayed on the ground is that it's of course a very polarized country.

The gap, rich and poor, is still very high.

middle class is rising but not not that fast and there are a lot of challenges right you know and you know we could start by saying that especially for a bank right to figure out uh you know how to give money to a to a to a micro smes that's often are like one person company right like uh we're talking Well, maybe not.

Let's start by the definition of MSMEs, you know, and maybe the challenges that are specific, you know, to the country, because I actually don't think that a lot, even a lot of people who are familiar with Africa would know how the Madagascar ecosystem is.

Yes, you're right.

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world.

I think officially it's somewhere between 10th and 5th poorest country in the world by statistics, by GDP per capita.

the MSME ecosystem here is rather what we call informelle in French, informal.

So it's businesses here generally, okay, to give a perception about the...

The country itself, yeah, the population of the country is about 31 million people currently.

The median age is 19.4 years.

Yeah, so it's half the population is below 19 years old.

It's a very young, one of the youngest, not the youngest country in the world.

At the same time, there are 13 banks functioning in the country, one of which is more mobile money institution that got banking license recently.

So if we don't count this institution, simply because it's slightly different animal for the banking market.

The total number of all customers of all banks.

So Madagascar, to give you a perception about the country, Madagascar counts 31 million people.

The median age of the population of the country is about 19 years, 19.4 years.

Yeah, that means that half of the country's population are younger than 19 years.

There are 13 banks operating currently in the country and about 10 microfinance institutions.

The total number of all customers of all banks in the country is about 1,700,000.

So if you imagine 16 million of adult population, only 1.7 are bankers.

But this also includes companies and private accounts.