This research aims to provide insight into the hedge fund industry in South Africa. The focus is on retirement funds and the use of hedge funds in a multi-asset class portfolio. Diversification is an important tool for portfolio managers who make use of correlation to achieve higher risk-adjusted returns for investors. As such this paper tests whether higher risk-adjusted returns can be achieved in well diversified multi-asset class portfolios if hedge funds are included. To test for the optimal risk-adjusted returns that can be achieved, mean-variance, mean-semi variance and Omega portfolios were created. The results suggest that portfolios that include hedge fund investments outperformed those that exclude it using mean-variance, mean-semi variance and Omega analysis. Furthermore it was found that portfolios that included Pure Hedge Funds outperformed those that included Fund of Hedge Funds. The evidence suggests that hedge fund investments should be included in a well-diversified South African multi-asset class portfolio, with Pure Hedge Funds being preferred to Fund of Hedge Funds.

The study investigated challenges facing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the informal settlements of Namibia

This study tested the impact of Business Incubators (BI) in stimulating the growth of small to medium businesses in a Southern African country, Zambia. The study explores the existence, awareness, beliefs and experience in a sub Saharan context, identifying the key impact factors. The study was aimed at understanding whether the operation of business incubators would result in stimulating small to medium business enterprises the same way it does in the west. To achieve this, the study reviewed the existing literature on the subject matter and analysed the collected data using a questionnaire was analysed. The collected data was analysed using SSPS. The results of the analysis revealed that 64% of the respondents had heard about Business Incubators. This was done through a scientific research by a well selected set of interview questionnaires, from a sample size of 300 small to medium businesses. Only 19% confirmed receiving business assistance from a support initiative. 95% of the total respondents confirmed that a business incubator program would impact the growth of their businesses in many areas. The study further found that there were a few challenges with access to a Business Incubator. Prominent amount them was the restricted access to SMEs located in the cities. Secondly, the respondents bemoaned that the application procedure was complicated and needed to be simplified and translated into local languages. The research makes the conclusion that Business Incubators have a positive impact on the growth of small businesses in Zambia, based on the empirical evidence obtained during the study. The study revealed 32% of incubated businesses had reduced their operation costs. Contrary to available research, entrepreneurs who had received support from Business Incubators employed fewer employees than those that did not. The study therefore, questioned how business incubators increased the probability of the long term survival of the enterprise.

This study analyses the relationship between the US Dollar/Zambian kwacha exchange rate and the interest rate yields on the 91-day and 182-day T-bills in Zambia. Using statistical analysis of regression analysis and co integration, the study found that a long-run relationship does not hold for both 91-day and 182-day T-bills taken for any corresponding set of interest rate and exchange rate respectively. Nonetheless, the three variables taken simultaneously demonstrated that a long-run correlation exist. Following a comprehensive analysis of the results from this study, it is concluded that the statistical relationship that exists is not very significant and investors looking forward to invest in Zambia's financial markets should include other factors in order to forecast the exchange rates with regard to the changes in interest rates.

According to Swaziland's National Development Strategy, the country's objectives are to improve the standard of living of all citizens, eradicate poverty, create employment, enhance gender equality and improve the country's human development ranking from a low human development rank to a high human development rank by 2022. Persistent poverty and the unequal distribution of income have, however, posed significant challenges for the country in achieving these development goals. This study assessed the extent to which the government of Swaziland has been able to use its fiscal policy, in particular the tax and public expenditure policies on health and education, to redistribute resources and reduce income inequality. The study also investigated the incidence of out-of-pocket expenses incurred by households in accessing public health and education facilities. Based on both the Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey data collected in the 2010 national survey and the government's 2010 budget, the study found that the tax policy had had a slight redistributive effect, as the Gini coefficient, had dropped from 0.7909 (pre-tax income distribution) to 0.7424 (post-tax income distribution). Public expenditure on education improved the income of poor households by 32.83 per cent and had led to a further reduction in the Gini to 0.7185; however, public expenditure on tertiary education was poorly targeted as rich households were deriving a higher benefit than poor households. Out-of-pocket expenses on health were not regressive despite the fact that there was a low usage of health facilities by the low income households. On the other hand, education out-of-pocket expenses were found to be regressive and had a negative impact on the progression rates from primary education to higher learning institutions in the low income households. Overall it would appear that the country's fiscal policy has led to a reduction in the country's income inequality. However, the country has not made significant progress towards the achievement of its development goals, with the 2010 national household survey revealing that the poverty rate was still relatively high at 0.630, while the 2010 labour force survey revealed that unemployment was still high at 0.406 and the 2014 human development report showed that the country was still ranked low in terms of human development.

The Zimbabwean economy has been in decline for the past two decades with the economic situation reaching its worst state in 2008. This period was followed by the adoption of a multi-currency regime in 2009, which the Zimbabwean government hoped would lend some stability to the crumbling economy. The agricultural sector, which was previously considered the cornerstone of the economy has been contributing increasingly less and less to the country's gross Domestic Product, with the current state of the sector being the worst it has been since the country's independence in 1980. Much research has been done to establish the source of the decline in the sector with the major findings pointing toward unfavourable weather conditions, the issue of the equitable distribution of land and the IMF and WB mandated Economic Structural Adjustment Program. This research focused on the effects of ESAP on the agricultural sector with a view to highlight the themes that emerged on key indicators over the adjustment period from 1990 to 1995 as well as a period after to 2000 in order to consider the time lagged effects of adjustment policies. In addition to this, this research investigated the extent to which the ESAP policies were applied, and whether this may have been a reason for ESAP's perceived failings. This paper concluded that despite the shortcomings of ESAP, policies recommended pursuant to this program were not the direct source of the decline of the sector, but rather the non or poor implementation of policies as well as the socio-political environment in the country.

Socially responsible investment (SRI) and now commonly known as sustainable responsible investment is starting to gain a momentum in South Africa among asset owners and managers. Of a particular interest is that the leading public pension fund manager, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) which invests on behalf of the Government Employee Pension Fund (GEPF) has a significant interest in driving this phenomenon in South Africa. In actual fact, GEPF was the first public asset owner in South Africa to subscribe to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment in 2006. This is not surprising because a pension fund such as the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) is one of the largest investors through the PIC in the South African economy and the fund is equivalent to 1/3 of the country's GDP with almost R1 trillion assets and has investments in all sectors of the economy. Given the significant power that this fund has in the South African economy, it was of particular interest for this research to link whether SRI agenda in the PIC is also embedded in a broader strategy/policy around South Africa economic development and by whom is this agenda is being driven in the PIC? Furthermore, this research helps to understand the key drivers, challenges, enablers for the PIC to advance SRI agenda in South Africa. The research adopts a case study approach to understand how entrenched is the SRI agenda in big public pension asset managers in South Africa. The research found that over the past few years, the PIC SRI strategy focused on equity and developmental investing with low focus towards fixed income and property asset classes. In general, the research has found that the PIC SRI Strategy responds to issues that that meet government objectives of ensuring growth and economic development of South Africa. In all four asset classes, the PIC SRI Strategy broadly addresses issues such as black economic empowerment, skills development, economic growth, economic and social infrastructure (roads, energy, housing, and education), enterprise development and job creation. However, the government has not taken any concrete steps for greater collaboration with the PIC on ESG issues in South Africa. PIC is advancing its SRI strategy mainly through active share ownership and developmental impact investing.

This study evaluates the venture capital sector in emerging economies with reference to the South African and Polish venture capital markets. The study focuses on the entrepreneurial, regulative and governmental factors that characterise emerging market venture capital sectors as well as the role that venture capitalists play in economic development. Emerging market venture capital characteristics, similarities and differences found from the literature review were tested in the South African venture capital market by conducting semi-structured interviews with six members of the South African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. The findings confirm similarities between the two markets and highlight a few differences. The findings also show that South African VCs have very different experiences compared to the Asian VCs mainly due to institutionalization. In conclusion emerging market VCs sectors in Poland and South Africa are seen as having environments that are not deterrent to the growth of the venture capital sector but which with a few adjustments can spur on greater growth of the sector.

Given inadequate domestic resources, as well as political and social pressures for development projects, Zambia will tend to run high budget deficits, and become very dependent on external debt. Thus debt sustainability becomes a major policy goal. This study investigated the significant macroeconomic factors that can influence external debt sustainability. These are GDP growth; Government revenues; exports; public expenditure; interest rate and exchange rate. The study employed simple Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) as well as a Vector Auto Regression (VAR) to capture dynamic relationships. The results revealed that exports and interest rates were positively related to sustainability. Revenues, GDP growth and Exchange rate were inversely related to debt sustainability. The total expenditure to GDP was inversely related to sustainability while current expenditure was positively related to sustainability probably due to prudent use of current expenditure on economic factors that stimulated growth. Capital expenditure was not significant to sustainability which may reflect the poor attention paid to infrastructure development in Zambia. The impulse response of the solvency indicator to revenue, GDP growth and total expenditure/GDP were generally negative over a ten year period. The policy implication is that in order to keep the debt sustainable, the debt resources must be used to maximise GDP growth and enhance public revenue. The impulse responses from exchange rate and interest rates to shocks on the solvency indicator were positive. The impulse response of SI from impulses in exports was negative. These are factors that are not completely in the control of the Government. The policy implication in contracting international debt is that Government should go for the lowest possible interest rate. Government should do its best to develop credible export promotion policies that can directly impact on the SI and also help to stabilize the exchange rate.

This study explored the foreign exchange risk management practices by JSE-listed companies, specifically non-financial companies. The investigation was based on the experienced practices in 2015. A web-based survey was used to source data from the population and yielded a 37% response rate. Transactional risk is the most prioritised form of foreign exchange exposure. Surprisingly, economic exposure is also highly regarded by JSE non-financial firms. Translational risk is the least prioritised form of foreign exchange risk. There is a significant statistical relationship between the frequency at which firms manage economic risk, and the industry to which they belong. Consistent with the prescriptive theory, the study found that a significant majority of firms used internal or operational hedging techniques in combination with financial derivatives. Netting is the predominately used internal hedging technique by the survey respondents. There is a significant relationship between a firm's usage of netting as an internal hedging technique and the percentage of foreign currency denominated expenses. Forward contracts are the preferred financial derivative used to hedge foreign exchange exposure. The study reveals that the manner in which firms use forward contracts is significantly influenced by their percentage of foreign currency denominated expenses. It is noted that a strategic decision with respect to management of foreign exchange risk in JSE non-financial firms falls within the purview of a firm's executive management.