Costs and Benefits of Health Savings and Health Loans: RCPB's Experience with Microfinance and Health Protection in Burkina Faso

This paper documents costs and benefits associated with delivery of health savings and health loans by Réseau des Caisses Populaires du Burkina (RCPB) in Northern Burkina Faso as part of the Microfinance and Health Protection (MAHP) initiative from 2006 to 2009.

The paper examines the costs and benefits of offering the integrated microfinance and health protection package to RCPB. Findings include:

• Package earned about US$5,100 in revenues during 2008–2009;
• RCPB spent approximately US$5,200 in direct and marginal costs to offer the loan package in 2008–2009;
• Trends indicate that the package will break even during its third year of operation;
• When allocating a proportion of branch and management staff time to the package, RCPB realized a net loss of more than US$15,000 over the course of 2008-2009.

RCPB staff report that the health savings and loan package has led to enhanced client growth and retention. It has also improved clients’ financial security and capacity to save. If even a moderate level of client growth could be attributed to the package, this would constitute an additional value of nearly US$3,000 over one year to RCPB.