Making Finance Work for Africa

Front Cover
World Bank Publications, 2007 - 240 pages
Making Finance Work for Africa takes a panoramic view of Africa's financial systems, both at the large scale ("finance for growth") and the small scale ("finance for all"). Things are changing for the better in African finance. Credit growth is underway after a long pause, solid new intermediaries are entering the marketplace, and the reach of microfinance is growing steadily. Finance can be a leading sector transforming African economies - by opening up business opportunities to a wider clientele and by channeling larger resources more effectively. By providing a key alternative to government patronage as a basis for entry into business, a strong, independent financial system can transform the environment for enterprise. In addition, finance can help the poor and those in remote rural areas by providing small-scale payments, savings, and risk reduction services. Making Finance Work for Africa presents a coherent policy approach that addresses African priorities and can work in African conditions. It challenges the applicability of some conventional views on a range of issues from securities markets and banking regulation to the organization of microfinance institutions. The authors identify promising trends from across sub-Saharan Africa and pinpoint shortcomings. The book will be useful to policy makers, bankers, financial analysts, and economists working in Africa.

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Page 33 - Pacific Europe and Central Asia Latin America and the Caribbean Middle East and North Africa South Asia Sub-Saharan Africab a.
Page 127 - Malawi is a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), granting trade preferences to member states.
Page 124 - It would go beyond the scope of this appraisal of the Brookings study to elaborate at length the implication of this proposition. In the short run, ie, over the next decade or so, it Implies that an increase in the supply capabilities of underdeveloped countries is likely to be associated with an increase in the demand for capital goods from countries producing capital goods, including the United States. In the long run it may have important effects on the composition of US exports, bringing about...
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Page 58 - Asia and the smallest share in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the Middle East and North Africa.
Page 159 - Maimbo (chapter 2) also argue that throughout Africa, financial and monetary policies and regulations have created barriers to the flow of remittances and their effective investment.
Page 85 - Instead, in order to have banks that promote social welfare, a country needs political and other institutions that induce its officials to develop policies that maximize social welfare, not the private welfare of officials or bankers. The...
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