Benin Statutory interest (taux de l'intérêt légal)
Benin Statutory interest (taux de l'intérêt légal) is 5.3637 percent, in force since 1 Jan 2026. Last checked against the official source on 21 Aug 2026.
Benin's legal interest rate, fixed for each calendar year by ministerial arrêté under the UMOA uniform law: 5.3637% for 2026, the same figure applying in all eight UMOA member states because the formula runs off union-wide BCEAO refinancing rates.
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| Current value | 5.3637 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| Official source | BCEAO, 'Taux d'intérêt légal 2026 des pays de l'UMOA': BÉNIN — 5,3637%, per 'Arrêté n°2026-N°265-C/MEF/DC/SGM/DGTCP/DAMF/SMPE/SP du 08 février 2026 fixant le taux de l'intérêt légal en République du Bénin pour l'année 2026'. Method (BCEAO): 'Le taux d'intérêt légal est fixé, par arrêté ou décret selon le pays, à l'initiative du Ministre chargé des Finances, pour la durée de l'année civile' and 'Il est pour l'année considérée, égal à la moyenne des taux maximum de refinancement applicables aux concours octroyés par la BCEAO au cours de l'année civile précédente, pondérés par les durées correspondantes' |
| Last verified | 2026-08-21 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
5.3637% per annum for calendar year 2026. One rate for civil and commercial money debts alike — the taux d'intérêt légal is the interest a creditor is owed on a late-paid debt where the parties agreed no contractual rate; where they did agree one, the contract rate governs. SET NATIONALLY, COMPUTED UNION-WIDE: Benin's Minister of Finance issues the annual arrêté (n°2026-265-C/MEF/DC/SGM/DGTCP of 8 February 2026), but the formula in the UMOA uniform law is the duration-weighted average of the BCEAO's maximum refinancing rates over the PRIOR calendar year — union-wide inputs, so all eight UMOA states carry the identical figure (2026: 5.3637%; 2025: 5.50%). Benin's national framework is loi n°2024-10 relative au taux d'intérêt légal en République du Bénin (adopted unanimously by the Assemblée nationale on 27 February 2024), transposing the UMOA uniform law adopted by Décision n°CM/UMOA/010/06/2013 of 28 June 2013. THREE TRAPS: (1) Do not confuse this with the TAUX D'USURE, the union-level ceiling on lending rates — a different instrument at a different number (14% for banks, 24% for finance companies and SFDs from 1 June 2026, Décision n°19/29-12-2025/CM/UMOA). (2) The rate is published to four decimals and must not be rounded — it is 5.3637%, not 5.36% or 5.4%. (3) The rate governs the whole calendar year from 1 January, but the national arrêté is signed weeks later (Benin: 8 February 2026; Niger did not sign until 2 April 2026), so early in a year the operative national instrument may not yet exist even though the year's rate does. POST-JUDGMENT UPLIFT: the UMOA uniform law carries a majoration where a debtor is ordered to pay legal interest — in Senegal's transposition (loi n°2021-20, art. 3) the rate is 'majoré de moitié' (increased by half) once two months have run from the day the judgment became enforceable, with the enforcement judge free to waive or reduce it. Confirm the corresponding article in Benin's loi n°2024-10 before pleading the uplifted figure. OHADA CROSS-REFERENCE: for commercial sale-price claims the Acte uniforme relatif au droit commercial général awards interest 'calculés au taux d'intérêt légal, applicable en matière commerciale', running from the mise en demeure — this national rate is what fills that reference. NEXT FIXING: the 2027 rate, expected by national arrêté in Q1 2027 and consolidated in the BCEAO's annual UMOA table. ACCESS: in the BCEAO 2026 compilation PDF the 5,3637% figure is ONE merged cell spanning all eight country rows - naive text extraction sees it once (apparently under BENIN); confirming other countries needs the cell geometry. The PDF was re-touched 2026-06-29 with unchanged content. A 302-to-/fr from bceao.int means a mangled URL, not a moved document.
Get it programmatically
curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bj/statutory-interest
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://afriref.dev/v1/bj/statutory-interest/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://afriref.dev/provenance/bj/statutory-interestOther Benin series: Policy rate (BCEAO minimum bid rate) · Value-added tax (TVA) standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (SMIG) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (IHPC, year-on-year) · Corporate income tax (IS) standard rate · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax on salaries (ITS) · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Botswana · Burkina Faso · Cameroon · Central African Republic · Chad · all 34