Formalisation et accès au crédit des petites et moyennes entreprises : cas du Togo

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of formalization on access to credit by taking the example of Togolese (small and medium) enterprises. To achieve this objective, we test the hypothesis that the formalization of firms has a significant effect on access to credit. To do so, a Probit regression and the special regressor method were used on data from 65,725 firms extracted from the 2019 General Census of Enterprises database piloted by the Institut Nationale de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques et Démographiques (INSEED). The results show that the variable "Formalization of enterprises (small and medium)" has a significant influence at the 1% level on the probability of access to credit. In addition, the control variables such as guarantees, cost of credit, access to the public market, gender and level of education also explain access to credit at the 1%, 1%, 5% and 10% thresholds respectively. Our results show the importance of training and capacity building for informal enterprises to formalize. Also, they will allow regulatory bodies to develop policies that can reframe the informal sector in order to contribute to the GDP and absorb more young people seeking employment.