ABSTRACT
The informal sector plays an overwhelming role in supplying financial services to rural people in Africa. Formal finance in Nigerian villages consisted of loans issued through the Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricoie, the only formal institution making loans in rural areas. These loans were made up of animal traction, fertilizer, and seed loans. Wholesale merchants secured credit from urban based banks. The sequential order to receive a loan was flexible with the group responding to special member problems and needs. Multiple services are widespread with not only deposits and loans but in some cases pawnbroking, inventory, and marketing services built into some of these lenders activities. Deposit mobilization services would be offered along with credit facilities and credit would not be restricted to production loans. By 1990 nothing had come of efforts to reform the formal financial market in rural Niger.
