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During the last twenty years, microfinance knows a remarkable evolution regarding the financialisation process, creating an increasing need of financial services in human societies. First of all, this work aims to know if microfinance organizations answer to the financial services needed by rural populations. It studies then the means and strategies of these organisations regarding the underlying objectives. Our qualitative sample is made of 32 potential customers from the rural community of Toviklin, South-western Benin, representing distinct social classes (from the "non-poor" to the poorest). This work highlights a big gap between the financial services needed on a daily basis by rural populations and the effective offer of microfinance organisations. Concerning the microfinance organisations, the data analysed were taken from three local communitarian banks. These data reveal that their offer strongly focused on the profitability, is not accessible to the poorest, and also, not well adapted to the specific needs of the populations. With the hollow bank in Developing Countries, financial inclusion of the poor is only possible where it is instituted and where it takes place as a strategic choice, motivated by a better knowledge of the effect of exclusion and inequalities on the persistence of poverty. Arditi Prize 2010 in Development Studies.

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