Thesis (MDF (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This paper gives an insight of the uniqueness of the South African Private Equity Industry and the underlying reasons for that. It also highlights the differences between the South African Private Equity Industry and both the African Private Equity Industry as well as the Global Private Equity Industry. It highlights challenges that all three industries are facing, both as a result of the global financial meltdown, the resulting global economic recession, and otherwise. Additionally, the paper highlights challenges and trends that are unique to South Africa. Further, it discusses views of industry experts and academics through proposals aimed at addressing these challenges and the roles of industry stakeholders. The discussions around the trends are mainly to highlight certain characteristics about the industry, globally, in Africa and in South Africa. The evidence provided in this paper, shows that the South African Private Equity Industry, owing mainly to regulatory and legislative causes, has proven to be much more resilient than the Global Private Equity Market; as such, it is still able to operate and do business. This finding is not only applicable to the Private Equity industry, but cuts across the financial services industry as a whole. The evidence provided also shows that the one solution that cuts across most of the challenges that the South African Private Equity industry is facing, is educating the stakeholders about the industry and doing a much better job at marketing the industry to them.

Thesis (MDF (Development Finance))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Financial Services Associations (FSAs) have been established in Sierra Leone as a new form of shareholder-owned village bank since 2007, as part of an ongoing IFAD programme to assist the development of rural finance. This research report is a case study examining the viability of the FSA concept in the Sierra Leonean context, particularly with reference to previous research findings in other countries in Africa, and it includes a field survey within the communities and amongst the staff and board members of the FSAs. The findings of the study reveal a wide acceptance amongst the village communities of both the structure of the institutions and the products and services that they are capable of offering. There was no evidence of the abuse of their positions by the members of the boards with regard to their own loans and repayments, as had been reported in other studies. However, there is a pressing need for further staff training and sensitisation of the communities regarding their rights as shareholders. There is also a need for further injections of capital, and the study recommends the introduction of a wide range of additional products and services and the establishment of links with other financial institutions, such as community banks and commercial banks. It was found that there are considerable demands on IFAD’s management unit that is responsible for the FSAs. These demands are growing as the number of FSAs increases, and it is recommended that this unit be strengthened before continuing its expansion programme, to enable it to consolidate its strengths before its activities are dispersed too widely.

72 Abstract This work analyzes the institutional evolution of Argentinian deposit insurance and how this evolution could be explained using the theoretical frameworks proposed by works both Acemoglu and Robinson and the works of Levitsky and Murillo. The study highlights how institutions develop over time within frameworks of political changes. In addition, the work highlights the theoretical gap in new institutional economics in relation to analyzing the development and evolution of institutions through time. In response to this theoretical gap this work proposes the use of new model to conceptualize how institutions interact at multiple levels of the institutional hierarchy and how independent institutional developments can be mapped within the institutional hierarchy as they develop through time. In the end it is the hope that the conceptualized model presented is the first step in developing a more practical and useful model for new institutional economics as it relates to economic development and the construction and implementation of development policies.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013. / This paper analyses the provision of development finance to oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) firms through Development Finance Institutes (DFIs) in Africa. The paper aims to determine the state of equity markets and development finance in Africa and the level at which they contribute to the financing of oil and gas projects in Africa. The main question to be answered: is small firm participation sustainable in the oil and gas industry if equity markets do not develop to meet the financing needs in Africa? It is found that development finance contributes a small proportion of capital into oil and gas deals and financial equity markets play an even smaller role in garnering finance for capital intensive projects in the oil and gas industry as most finance is sourced externally or from internal cash flows. Small firms tend to reduce their interest in oil and gas projects based on lack of access to domestic finance through equity markets and limited development finance availability.

The ongoing transformation of centrally planned societies into market economies poses many difficult questions regarding large scale institutional reform. How far to go, how fast, and in which order? Until now, the debate has been mainly theoretical. As the reforms progress, however, we need to compare the theoretical predictions with the empirical evidence. Financial intermediation is one sector in which the gap between socialism and capitalism is particular large, and the development of commercial banking has often proved to be a bottleneck in the reform process. Empirical examination of financial reform is therefore urgent. This dissertation explores the development of the Vietnamese state banks during the early 1990s. It highlights the lengthy process of altering the formal model and informal rules governing the bank organizations. The official socialist ideology is the source of many problems. First, it means that state ownership remains, enabling the government to intervene easily in the banks’ operations. The ideology’s informal role is arguably even more important, because it leaves unclear how bankers should act when profit maximization conflicts with social responsibility. Uncertainty will prevail as long as bankers and banking authorities have only partially converted to a new set of norms. Accordingly, the formal financial sector will fail to florish. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.</p><p></p><p>A revised version of this dissertation has been published as: Román, Lisa, Institutions in Transition – Vietnamese State Bank  Reform, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston 1999.</p>

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

SMEs are conduits for the transformation of economies because they act as catalysts for private sector development. However, they face several constraints to accessing finances for their growth and development. Hence, by using a secondary dataset from the Central Bank of Eswatini that comprises 1,390 loan applicants, an empirical analysis was done using a binary logistic regression analysis to assess credit rationing factors preventing SMEs in the Kingdom of Eswatini to access DFIs loans for their growth and development. Thus, the objectives of the study are to examine the relationships between credit rationing factors and their effects on accessing DFI loans in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Descriptive analysis provided an explanation as to how these factors influence the financing of SMEs in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Pearson's correlation coefficient was, therefore, employed to determine the relationships between credit rationing factors and binary logistic regression analysis to examine the effect of these factors on DFIs loans accessibility. This method was used to determine the strength of the relationship between loan access and credit rationing factors. The findings show that the age of SMEs and loan amounts are some of the major negative factors impacting access to DFIs loans in the Kingdom of Eswatini. A mature SME is less constrained to access DFIs loan compared to start-ups and growing SMEs. Furthermore, SMEs that apply for sustainable loans are less constrained to access DFIs loans than those that apply for unsustainable and very high amounts. It is, therefore, concluded that DFIs in the Kingdom of Eswatini apply credit rationing in dispersing loans to SMEs. DFIs should link their loan amount to demands and to the period of existence, as only well established and matured SMEs have an added advantage in accessing DFIs loans. For these reasons, it is recommended that economic policy makers should devise loan access policies that suit start-ups and growing SME for their conducive development and growth. This policy is vital because SMEs have a pivotal role to play in the overall economic growth of the Kingdom of Eswatini.

This study empirically investigates the role Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) play in the economic growth of Zambia from 1992: Q1 to 2015: Q4. The main aim of the study is to find out if DFIs enhance economic growth in Zambia and if the growth witnessed over the study period was in fact improved by these inflows. Additionally, a multiple regression is run against the exchange rate, inflation unemployment and interest rate to further analyse the interaction of these variables with DFI inflows and how they have impacted the growth levels experienced in Zambia. The findings show that the impact DFIs on the GDP are ambiguous. In current period and DFI lagged to 2 periods prior, has a depressing effect whilst DFI lagged one period has an encouraging effect on GDP levels. Furthermore, from the cointegration tests, it is evident that there is a long run relationship that exists, signifying that the positive effects of DFIs can be felt in future periods especially if deployed to key sectors. The regression results of the other variables are in line with macro-economic theory which suggests that DFI inflows need to be supplemented with stable macro conditions to boost the degree of positive impact on GDP. To ensure future benefit to Zambia from DFI inflows; recommendations preferred to authorities inferred from the findings include, directing of these funds to job and revenue generating sectors that can increase export revenue. These sectors may include agriculture and manufacturing. Furthermore, it is cardinal that institutional infrastructures are put in place that effect legal and monitoring framework to ensure efficient deployment of these funds within the economy.

This research looked at external funding and its role in determining the success rate of the developmental agenda at country specific level. To undertake this investigation, the role of external funding was assessed alongside other factors largely viewed to be also relevant in discussing the success of the development agenda. The research relied on primary data collected from various participants deemed to be relevant stakeholders in development studies and its success drivers. The sample comprised bilaterals, multilaterals, aid agencies, private commercial sector, policy makers, regulators and the UN agencies. Extensive research was conducted using semi-structured questionnaires and also supported by interviews to probe further on the key sub-topics. The other factors explored alongside external funding in terms of their significance in influencing outcome of the development agenda are strong financial institutions, strong legal institutions, economic reform, competent human capital and international trade. While the factors linked to governance were ranked highly in terms of significance in driving Zimbabwe’ s achievement of sustainable development goals, the numeric difference on points scored were not materially significant. The research outcome highlighted the interconnectedness of the factors assessed in augmenting the impact of capital inflows in meeting the development agenda. In addition, it exposed the significance of broader stakeholder consultation and commitment at a national level.

Agriculture is the single most important sector in Malawi due to its contribution to the economy ranging from employment creation, contribution to GDP growth to source of foreign exchange earnings. These significant contributions have necessitated the Government of Malawi to develop strategies and policies such as the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP), whose main aim is to increase household incomes and reduce food insecurity and ultimately reduce poverty. It is nine years since the introduction of FISP but its results remain mixed. Using the 2009/10 Integrated Household Survey Phase 3 (IHS3) dataset, a logistic regression in a multivariate data analysis approach was used to investigate the impact of FISP on income levels and food security of rural smallholder farmers in Malawi. The analysis showed that about 82 percent of smallholder farmers live in rural areas, about 75 percent of them were males, 71 percent were married, 70 percent did not go to school and 69 percent benefited from FISP. In farming, 68 percent of these smallholder farmers had less than 1 hectare of farms, 70 percent of them had labour force of less than 5 people, 51 percent of them harvest less than 5 bags of 50kgs of maize of which 92 percent sell most of their harvested maize and 89 percent of them receive less than MK5, 000 from sales. In addition, about 99 percent of these smallholder farmers were food insecure as they save less than 1 bag of 50kgs after harvest. Only 1 percent of these smallholder farmers receive remittances and 21 percent had other income generating activities (IGAs). Demographic and socio-economic factors have no impact on these farmers capability to increase income levels and enhance their food security. There is also no statistically significant difference between FISP beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in terms of capabilities of increasing incomes and enhancing food security. It is, therefore, concluded that FISP had no significant impact on the abilities of these smallholder farmers to increase their incomes and enhancing their food security. Hence, FISP did not prove to be the best food security and poverty alleviation tool in Malawi.