Financial Services and Economic Development in Africa-super- 1

Mthuli Ncube ()

Journal of African Economies, vol. 16, issue suppl_1, -57

Abstract: This paper reviews the various ways in which the financial sector could impact on economic growth and development and in the process makes reference to some theoretical underpinnings. We present the structure and characteristics of financial systems in Africa. The main characteristics of financial systems in Africa that may affect economic development include weak regulation environment, weak legal systems, bankdominated financial systems, wide interest rate spreads, poor corporate governance practices, inadequate design of deposit-safety nets, oligopolistic banking sector, absence of financial innovation, inefficient payment and clearing systems, small and shallow stock markets, market fragmentation and informal financial channels and generally low levels of financial deepening. These characteristics influence the impact of financial services on economic growth and development. Policy-makers are challenged to enact policies that mitigate against the distortionary effects of these characteristics in order to promote economic growth and development. Copyright The author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jae/ejm025 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jafrec:v:16:y::i:suppl_1:p:-57

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of African Economies is currently edited by Francis Teal

More articles in Journal of African Economies from Centre for the Study of African Economies Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().