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This paper investigates the impact of financial inclusion on banks' profitability in Sub‐Saharan Africa. The paper employed the system generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic pooled estimator for the computation of the parameters using data spanning from 1990 to 2017. The results show that there is an affirmative relationship between financial inclusion index (FINDEX) and bank profitability in Sub‐Saharan Africa. This suggests that financial inclusion is a significant driver of banks' profitability in Sub‐Saharan Africa. The policy implication of this study is that for banks in Sub‐Saharan African countries to increase their profitability and get optimum results from financial inclusion they must formulate policies aimed at promoting financial inclusion. This suggests that banks in Sub‐Saharan African countries must be creative and innovative in pursuing financial inclusion policies. Such policies should be targeted at increasing the number of bank branches and ATMs. Banks should also make effort at finding ways of making opening of bank accounts much easier for the vulnerable and marginalized in society by relaxing the requirements for customer identification in specific situations where they may hamper financial inclusion goals and efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of access to electricity on financial development. In doing so, we use a number of instrumental variables (IV) approaches. Using panel data for 38 countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa over the period 2000–2018, the results suggest that more people having access to electricity can promote financial development. In addition, mobile phone and commercial bank branches diffusion serve as potential channels through which access to electricity affects financial development. Our results are robust to sample‐splitting and different estimation techniques. The results have important implications for policies in overcoming barriers to electricity access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the extant business strategy and sustainable development literature by investigating the effect of a broad corporate governance disclosure index on executive compensation and, subsequently, determines the extent to which the pay‐for‐sustainability sensitivity is moderated by corporate governance mechanisms. Employing data collected from 16 Sub‐Saharan Africa countries over the period from 2007 to 2018, the findings are as follows: First, we report that better‐governed banks pay lower compensation packages to their executives. Second, we find that executive compensation increases sustainable banking disclosures in the countries. Third, the findings show that executive compensation is negatively associated with environmental performance. Finally, we detect that the association between executive pay and sustainable banking performance is significantly moderated by corporate governance mechanisms, revealing that the pay‐for‐sustainability sensitivity is mainly positive and improves in banks with high corporate governance quality. This implies that the pay‐for‐sustainability sensitivity is contingent on the quality of the bank's internal governance mechanisms. Our findings have key implications for banking practitioners, regulators, environmental activists, and policy‐makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using monthly data from 2005 to 2019, we employ a dynamic heterogeneous cross‐sectionally autoregressive distributed lag (CS‐ARDL) model to examine the impact of higher regulatory capital requirements on the interest rate pass‐through (IRPT) to bank lending and deposit rates in 22 Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. Two key findings emerge from the investigation: (i) the average IRPT in SSA is incomplete in the long run, and (ii) stringent (higher) regulatory capital requirements reduce the pass‐through of monetary policy to commercial bank lending and deposit rates. The findings suggest that although higher regulatory capital requirements are an effective macro‐prudential tool for enhancing the stability of the banking sector, they could also have the unintended consequences of limiting economic expansion. This trade‐off calls for a careful analysis and balance in the implementation of monetary and bank regulatory policies in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the bias-corrected least-squares dummy variable (LSDV) estimator to examine the relationship between economic growth and four different types of private capital inflows (cross-border bank lending, foreign direct investment (FDI), bonds flows and portfolio equity flows) on a sample of 15 selected sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1980–2008. Our results show that FDI and cross-border bank lending exert a significant and positive impact on sub-Saharan Africa's growth, whereas portfolio equity flows and bonds flows have no growth impact. Our estimates suggest that a drop by 10 per cent in FDI inflows may lead to a 3 per cent decrease of income per capita growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and a 10 per cent decrease in cross-border bank lending may reduce growth by up to 1.5 per cent. Therefore, the global financial crisis is likely to have an important effect on sub-Saharan Africa's growth through the private capital inflows channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the effects of Digital Transformation as a General Purpose Technology and bank stability on banking inclusion and thus on financial inclusion in Sub‐Saharan African countries. We use simultaneous panel model estimates covering 36 Sub‐Saharan African countries from 2004 to 2017. The results show positive and significant effects of digital transformation as general purpose technology and bank stability on financial inclusion. The results show also that the effect of digital transformation on financial inclusion is more substantial when the banking sector is stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a general belief that Sub-Saharan Africa has the poorest record of international remittances because, due to deficiencies in the region's financial systems, a greater proportion of remittances passes through informal channels. This article examines the interactive impact of financial development on remittances to the region. Using a panel data covering 32 countries in the region from 1995 to 2009, it finds evidence of weak financial infrastructure constraining the flow of remittances. It also shows that the higher the level of a country's infrastructural development, the greater the impact on remittances. The article establishes that the impact of financial development and institutional quality is greater in emerging markets than in developing economies, implying that improving the financial system and institutional structures in Africa should be at the centre of the current policy efforts to optimize the benefits of remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effects of political agreements on regional financial integration ( RFI) on financial market development and access to and cost of finance in Sub- Saharan Africa ( SSA). Our results suggest that RFI positively affects financial development - measured very broadly as ratio of liquid liabilities to gross domestic product ( GDP) - when combined with a sufficient level of institutional quality. If institutional quality is below a threshold level, RFI apparently has negative effects on financial development. However, we cannot find any significant effects of RFI on the ratio of private credit to GDP or on the efficiency of the banking sector. Regarding the effects of RFI on access to and costs of finance of enterprises in SSA, our results are mixed. We can find no significant effect of RFI on access to finance for all firms in the aggregate, but the results indicate that RFI actually impedes small firms' access to finance. Furthermore, there is a significant positive influence of foreign bank involvement on the severity of the credit constraint for small enterprises, while we do not find such an influence for large enterprises. These results provide some support for the foreign bank barrier hypothesis in the context of RFI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the process of transformation of Trust Bank Limited (TBL) from government control to a private-listed banking company on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Specifically, the objectives are (a) to describe and analyze the important aspects/characteristics of the cross-border listing of TBL on the GSE; (b) to assess the extent to which the cross-border listing of TBL on the GSE from 2002–2004 can be considered a success; (c) to explore the extent to which the GSE provides a window of opportunity for other non-Ghanaian companies to achieve value-added wealth for their shareholders by listing on the GSE; and (d) to assess whether the GSE can offer a listed Gambian company sufficient international exposure. Secondary and primary sources were used for this study. Analyses of statistical data available suggest that the majority of respondents hail the listing of Trust Bank on the GSE as a resounding success. Over 80% of respondents strongly agree that the listing of Trust Bank on the GSE has made the bank one of the most profitable in the Gambia. It has also improved its service delivery and has given the bank international exposure. In view of the findings presented in this article, it is concluded that the GSE can offer a wide range of opportunities for other West African companies to raise value-added capital for future investment ventures. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that Afric-Invest Financial Sector Fund is a high-risk high-potential-return mutual fund focused on the developing countries and post-war nations of sub-Saharan Africa and launched by Tunisia-based private equity group Tuninvest. The Afric-Invest will invest in financial institutions as well as enterprises and activities in the financial services industry, including banking, consumer credit, insurance, leasing, and asset management. Investments within Afric-Invest have a high development impact.