Benin
Coris Bank International Benin is on the Banking Commission's list of approved banks (29 June 2026), and its Islamic branch, CBI Baraka Bénin, offers named Islamic products on its own website and publishes a compliance report for financial year 2024.
Five checks
Banking rulesFound
Regional rules apply. BCEAO Instruction n°002-03-2018, in force since 21 March 2018, sets the conditions for banks in the eight WAEMU states to do Islamic finance, either as a fully Islamic bank or through an authorised Islamic branch (a window). Companion BCEAO instructions cover microfinance institutions and the technical features of Islamic finance operations. The June 2023 WAEMU uniform banking law has a title on Islamic finance, but it applies in a state only after that state passes it as a national law. In English, the 2018 instruction says it sets the conditions for Islamic finance activities in the West African Monetary Union. National: Financial Afrik reports that Benin was the first state to pass the 2023 uniform law, as Law n°2024-14 of 2 September 2024, including its Islamic finance title. We did not read the national law itself.
- “La présente instruction a pour objet de définir les conditions d'exercice des activités de finance islamique dans l'Union Monétaire Ouest Africaine.”
BCEAO · 2018-03-21 - “aux SFD exerçant une activité de finance islamique, entrées en vigueur le 21 mars 2018”
BCEAO - “exercer l'activité bancaire islamique soit à titre exclusif, soit à travers une branche dédiée.”
Commission Bancaire de l'UMOA / BCEAO · 2023-06 - “Le Bénin a ouvert la marche avec la loi n°2024-14 du 2 septembre 2024 portant réglementation bancaire”
Financial Afrik · 2026-08-09 · secondary
Licensed banks and windowsFound
- Coris Bank International Baraka Bénin (CBI Baraka, Islamic branch of Coris Bank International Bénin) · windowMourabaha Financement (particuliers)Wadi'a (particuliers)Moudaraba : compte d'investissement
- “Financement de l’achat de vos équipements en vue d’un événement particulier (appareils ménagers, Moto, Automobile, fêtes, rentrée scolaire”
Coris Bank International Baraka - “Rapport du conseil de conformité interne à l’assemblée générale ordinaire des actionnaires exercice clos au 31 décembre 2024”
Coris Bank International Baraka - “CORIS BANK INTERNATIONAL - BENIN (CBI - BENIN)”
Commission Bancaire de l'UMOA · 2026-06-29 - “The CBI Baraka window is headed by Ms. Kahady Boye Hanne”
Financial Afrik · 2018-06-11 · secondary
Sukuk issuedNot checked
Takaful (non-interest insurance)Found
Regional rules apply. CIMA, the insurance regulator for its member states, says its Council of Ministers met on 10 October 2019 and adopted a regulation adding a book on takaful insurance to the CIMA insurance code. Financial Afrik gives its number as Règlement n°003/CIMA/PCMA/PCE/2019. We did not read the regulation text itself. We found no takaful operator licensed in Benin.
- “relating to book 9 on the provisions applicable to takaful insurance.”
CIMA · 2019-10-10 - “le Conseil des Ministres a adopté le 10 octobre 2019, le Règlement N°003/CIMA/PCMA/PCE/2019 portant réglementation des opérations d’assurance Takaful”
Financial Afrik · 2019-11-07 · secondary
Capital market rulesFound
Regional rules apply; there is no separate national securities regulator. UEMOA Regulation n°10/2022/CM/UEMOA covers Islamic financial securities, sukuk issuing companies and sukuk issuing funds. The BCEAO says the UEMOA Council of Ministers adopted the draft at its session of 30 September 2022, and it was published in the UEMOA Official Bulletin n°115 (fourth quarter 2022). The regional market regulator, AMF-UMOA, lists Instruction n°69/2023 on Islamic collective investment schemes, Instruction n°70/2023 on Islamic finance compliance councils for market actors and issuers, and Decision n°CM/15/09/2022 amending the market's General Regulation for Islamic capital markets. Its fund register shows the FCP Tawfir Halal fund (NSIA Asset Management) approved on 7 June 2024; Droit Médias Finance describes it as the second fund approved as compliant with Islamic finance rules on the regional market.
- “un projet de Règlement relatif aux titres financiers islamiques, aux Sociétés d'Emission de Sukuk Autogérées et aux Fonds d'Emission de Sukuk dans l'UEMOA”
BCEAO · 2022-09-30 - “REGLEMENT N° 10/2022/CM/UEMOA RELATIF AUX TITRES FINANCIERS ISLAMIQUES”
UEMOA · 2022 - “DECISION N°CM/15/09/2022 - PORTANT MODIFICATION DU REGLEMENT GENERAL RELATIF A L'ORGANISATION, AU FONCTIONNEMENT ET AU CONTROLE DU MARCHE FINANCIER REGIONAL - CAPITAUX ISLAMIQUES”
AMF-UMOA · 2022-09-15 - “INSTRUCTION N° 69 /AMF-UMOA/2023 RELATIVE AUX ORGANISMES DE PLACEMENT COLLECTIF CONFORMES AUX PRINCIPES ET RÈGLES DE LA FINANCE ISLAMIQUE”
AMF-UMOA · 2023 - “INSTRUCTION N° 70 /AMF-UMOA/2023 RELATIVE AUX CONSEILS DE CONFORMITE AUX PRINCIPES ET RÈGLES DE LA FINANCE ISLAMIQUE POUR LES ACTEURS ET EMETTEURS”
AMF-UMOA · 2023 - “FCP TAWFIR HALAL”
AMF-UMOA · 2024-06-07 - “La décision d'agrément N°AMF UMOA /2024/142 portant agrément du Fonds Commun de Placement TAWFIR HALAL”
Droit Médias Finance · secondary
Recent developments
- 2024-09-02Law n°2024-14 on banking regulation was passed, carrying over the 2023 WAEMU uniform banking law and its Islamic finance provisions (Financial Afrik). source
- 2026-07BCEAO annual report 2025: 21 Islamic finance institutions held an approval in the WAEMU at end-December 2025, and four microfinance institutions were approved for Islamic finance in 2025 (two of them exclusively). The report gives no country breakdown. source
- 2024-06-07AMF-UMOA approved the FCP Tawfir Halal fund of NSIA Asset Management. Droit Médias Finance describes it as the second Islamic fund approved on the regional market. source
Still open
Points we could not confirm at source yet.
- No regulator list names authorised Islamic branches. The Banking Commission list names the parent bank only.
- The text of Benin's Law n°2024-14 was not read at a primary source (official gazette).
- Whether any Islamic microfinance institution or takaful operator is licensed in Benin.
- Sukuk: no Benin sukuk appears in the AMF-UMOA register or on BRVM; private or foreign placements were not searched, so the check stays open.
Where we searched
- bceao.int: Instruction 002-03-2018 PDF, FAQ on Islamic finance texts, 30 Sep 2022 Council of Ministers communiqué, 2025 annual report (all downloaded and searched)
- cb-umoa.org: 2023 uniform banking law PDF, country lists of approved institutions updated 29 Jun 2026, Banking Commission annual report 2024 (no per-country list of Islamic branches in it)
- amf-umoa.org: public data feeds behind the instructions, decisions and approved-fund pages (the HTML pages load these by script); fund documents could not be downloaded
- uemoa.int: Bulletin Officiel n°115 (text layer searched for Regulation 10/2022)
- cima-afrique.org: 2019 Council of Ministers press release and member states page
- brvm.org: bond price list
- benin.corisbankbaraka.com (product, compliance report, certificate and contact pages) and benin.coris.bank
- Financial Afrik (2018 window launch)
- AMF-UMOA fund register and BRVM bond list: no sukuk for Benin