External publications

A financial sector to support development in low income countries

Griffith-Jones, Stephany / Ewa Karwowski / Florence Dafe
External Publications (2014)

London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI Report November 2014)

The financial sectors of African LICs are still at an early stage of development so that lessons from the crisis could inform their financial sector development strategies. They have the advantage of latecomers. Moreover, their financial sectors, while generally still shallow, are experiencing fairly rapid growth. Combined with African countries’ existing vulnerabilities, such as limited regulatory capacity, and vulnerability to external shocks, this might pose risks to financial system stability. Despite the infrequent appearance of systemic banking crisis on the African continent over the past decade (see below), fast credit growth in many economies—even if at comparatively low levels—calls for caution, signalling the need for strong, as well as countercyclical, regulation of African financial systems. For policy-makers and researchers this poses the challenge of applying the lessons from the crisis in developed and previously in emerging countries to African LICs, while paying careful attention to the specific features of African financial systems.

About the IDOS author

Further IDOS experts

Altenburg, Tilman

Economic Geography 

Asimeng, Emmanuel Theodore

Urban Planning, Sustainability 

Fasold, Maximilian

Political Economy 

Loewe, Markus

Economy 

Mchowa, Chifundo

Development Economics 

Sowa, Alina

Economics 

Vogel, Tim

Economy 

Walle, Yabibal

Development Economics 

Zintl, Tina

Political Scientist 

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