African Financial Systems: A Review

By Franklin Allen, Isaac Otchere, Lemma W. Senbet. 2010

249 citations recorded by the source corpus.

diverse, with different regional economic blocs. The financial systems in these countries are as diverse as the countries. Reviewing the financial systems of such a heterogeneous group of countries presents a challenge. Therefore, to make the review more concise, we categorize the countries along geographic lines into four groups, namely, Arab North Africa, West Africa, East and Central Africa, and Southern Africa.1 This review covers, among other things, a brief review of the economies, central banks, deposit-taking banks, non-bank institutions, such as the stock markets, fixed income markets, and microfinance institutions in Africa. In this section, we present an executive summary of the African financial systems, highlighting some of the investment opportunities that exist, and then proceed with an in-depth review of the current state of the financial systems of the various sub-groups in Africa. In section II, we review the financial systems in North Africa. The financial systems in West Africa are reviewed in Section III, while those in Central and East Africa are reviewed in Section IV. In Section V, we examine the financial systems in Southern Africa. We conclude with a brief discussion of the risks that potential investors should be concerned about in Section VI.

Subfields: Accounting, Economics and Econometrics, Information Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2b84591576ceec8d17e9270f5c0c2d2193d5a5f4

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Citations in the corpus

Information Sharing and Financial Sector Development in Africa (2017, background): “As documented by Batuo and Kupukile (2010) and Allen, Otchere, and Senbet (2011), the policies motivating the initiation of information-sharing bureaus have built on the evidence that lending by banks is limited by a number of factors that are indirectly or directly connected to the underlying…”
Information Asymmetry and Financial Development Dynamics in Africa (2016, unknown): “…finance literature documenting that basic financial access (like credit, payments, private and corporate insurance) has been substantially constrained by a plethora of factors that limit, inter alia: eligibility, physical access and affordability (Batuo & Kupukile, 2010; Allen et al., 2011).”
The global financial crisis: An analysis of the spillover effects on African stock markets (2014, methodology): “Onour (2010), Anoruo and Gil-Alana (2011) and Alagidede, Panagiotidis and Zhang (2011) use the cointegration method to characterize the interdependence of African stock markets. Alagidede, Panagiotidis and Zhang (2011) suggest that the global markets had little impact on African stock markets. Conve”
Financial Inclusion and Innovation in Africa: An Overview (2015, background): “This paper and this special issue are related to a small but rapidly growing academic literature on financial system development in Africa (see Allen, Otchere, and Senbet, 2011, for a comprehensive survey).”
Analysis of the determinants of financial inclusion in Central and West Africa (2016, unknown): “During the last decades, the African financial system has grown rapidly, e.g., Allen et al. (2013), Allen, Otchere and Senbet (2011), Beck and Cull (2013), Beck, Fuchs and Uy (2009).”
Resolving the African Financial Development Gap: Cross-Country Comparisons and a Within-Country Study of Kenya (2012, unknown): “In light of the preliminary evidence presented above, in an ongoing work Allen et al. (2011) explore the impact of Equity Bank, as well as other banks, on the use of banking services in Kenya by combining a new data set on bank presence with household- level survey data in 2006 and 2009.”
The Vulnerability of Microfinance to Financial Turmoil – Evidence from the Global Financial Crisis (2013, background): “…as an effective tool to alleviate poverty and foster growth and employment in developing countries and emerging market economies by providing loans and other financial services to poor households and microentrepreneurs neglected by traditional banks (Allen et al. 2011, World Bank 2008, Rajan 2006).”