The importance of savings to secure individuals in the event of uncertainties has been widely acknowledged by South Africans. However, South Africa is still facing a low savings rate compared to other developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that inhibit South Africans from having a culture of saving. Specifically, using a convergent parallel mixed methods approach, the study examined the determinants of the savings rate and explored the view of households on the important factors that cause a low savings rate. The data for the quantitative component employed a merged data set from the National Income Dynamic Survey 2018 and 47 individuals were consulted in qualitative interviews. The results of the quantitative approach provided evidence to suggest that high income, being employed and the highest levels of education are associated with higher savings. Larger household size and older age are associated with lower savings. Females are better at saving than males and the widowed are better at saving than married, single and cohabiting households. From the qualitative thematic analysis, the important factors that cause the low savings rate among households were identified as insufficient income to allow savings, their lack of discipline in managing their spend and the effects arising as a result of black tax repercussions. The study made the following recommendations to ensure that the savings culture in South Africa provides a safety net: entrepreneurial skills training to augment the budgets of low-income earners; financial literacy to be part of the curriculum in schools from the Foundation Phase; mandatory financial training for new employees coupled with incentives for organisations that participate in these initiatives; and innovative savings programmes targeting low-income earners from financial institutions. Finally, it was recommended that the South African Savings Institute collaborates with the Services Sector Education and Training Authority to develop training manuals that could be distributed to organisations.

This study aims to contribute to the academic and business knowledge of how to enhance digital credit in Pakistan's unsecured lending sector, which is vital to the development of the country's financial ecosystem. A Randomized Control Trial (RCT) is conducted with a view to answering two questions: (1) What is the optimal amount to lend to a customer? (2) How long should the loan tenor be? The objectives of the RCT were to track product take-up and product repayment as both are crucial for the success of a lending institution as well as the credit history of the individual customer. The study employs a linear probability model (LPM), estimated by an ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, to analyse take-up, and instrumental variables to analyse repayment sensitivity. The data used was obtained from a technology platform that partners with a Pakistani microfinance bank and was automatically collected via their USSD platform. The sample consisted of roughly 28,000 individuals. Causal evidence of the impact of changes in loan amount and loan repayment tenor was found on both take-up and repayment. Loan take-up was most impacted by the loan amount offered with the highest take-up for the loan of the largest amount and having the longest tenor. Repayment rates were better for the longer tenor loans and this was particularly apparent at the larger loan amount level. Some additional characteristics were also causally relevant in loan take-up but not in repayment, such as whether a customer read through the terms and conditions. Although the starting sample was large (28,000 individuals), the limited take-up of the product significantly reduced the actual sample, as is common in other studies of this kind. Future studies might seek for an even larger starting sample, alter price as one of the variables for an RCT, or add qualitative surveys to better understand loan usage and reasons for repayment and non-repayment.

The relationship between financial development and economic growth remains a crucial subject of exploration in the academic world. Although several therioes and studies have been conducted to assess casuality between these two economic indicator proxies, the results remain inconclusive as to whether financial development causes economic growth or the opposite is true. Furthermore, the link between development finance institutions and economic growth is yet to receive empirical examination in emerging markets such as South Africa. Since the emancipation of South African country from apartheid the government embarked on several strategies to boost economic growth, one of which is the outlay of funds from the fiscus to development finance institutions to boost capital formation, which in turn results in growth. Whether or not these institutions and the extensions they make results in economic growth is subject to research. This study explores the long and short run effect of development finance institutions extensions on economic growth in South Africa from 1995 to 2018. It utilises annual aggregated development finance institutions extensions and real GDP as proxies for DFIs development and economic growth respectively. The study employs the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds tests approach to co-integration developed by (M. Hashem Pesaran, Shin, & Smith, 2001) to determine the relationship between development finance committments development and economic growth, along with Augmented Dickey-Fuller tests and Philip Perron tests to test for unit roots on the data. The data was obtained from SADC statistics, World Bank, South African Reserve Bank, Open Source Capital and OECD library. The results of the study found evidence to support a deterministic relationship between the DFIs development and economic growth after controlling for trade openness and stock market development. The long run effect of DFI_E on economic growth revealed that DFIs extensions show significant influence on economic growth in South Africa. It therefore recommendeds that South Africa's policy makers should focus on policies that allow proliferation and ease of capital movements for international DFIs in the country. Additionally, the study recommends that the South African government increase its funding to domestic DFIs from the fiscus to enhance economic growth.

It is universally recognized that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are extremely valuable in creating social and economic development. It is for this reason that many countries have adopted MSME development policies as part of their national development strategies. In South Africa, the post-Apartheid government rolled out development policies and established institutions through the Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) with the aim to boost development of previously marginalised MSMEs. Up to 85% of the MSMEs in South Africa are informal and survivalist businesses, the majority of which are based in the townships. 70% of MSMEs in South Africa fail within their first 5-7 years. It is evident that the development of the MSME sector in South Africa is lagging behind, even with the existence of these government-led business development service (BDS) institutions. Against this background, this study sought to explore the benefits and challenges associated with utilising these development services from the perspective of the township-based MSME. The study employed the thematic qualitative analytical technique to analyse primary interview data from 17 township-based MSMEs in South Africa. The study found the main challenges to be a demand-supply mismatch, poor access to finance, lack of aftercare programmes, lack of trust in government services and poor quality and duration of services. In terms of the positives, a demand-supply match was found with the outsourced training, the quality of financial services was found to be advantageous and assistance with regulatory compliance was highly beneficial. Based on the findings, it is recommended that institutions should focus on outsourcing to the specialised and sector-specific incubation hubs rather than utilising inhouse training. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) should outsource training to specialised townshipbased incubation hubs. Instead of pressurising informal township businesses to formalise, DFIs should aim to support a transition from the traditional informal sector to the modernising informal sector. In terms of government monitoring, policies driven by measurable targets need to be put in place and reviewed on a quarterly basis. Other recommendations include consultations, mentorship provision in clusters, an alumni network, feedback surveys, government service procurement backed by legislation, the adoption of e-procurement, the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs), an effective monitoring system, an ongoing entrepreneurship campaign and the adoption of the integrated model.

In a connected world, the foreign exchange rate for any country ensures that exports are competitive, imports are affordable, and there exists an economic environment conducive for sustainable growth of the economy. South Africa as an emerging country is no exception. Many stakeholders including, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) as the monetary authority of the country are interested in understanding the key factors that influence the South African exchange rate and how these factors may be managed effectively to ensure sustainable economic growth for the South African economy. This research studies the fundamental determinants of the real exchange rate (RER) for South Africa under a market driven floating exchange rate arrangement from March 1995 to December 2014. The research investigates the effects of the fundamental determinants of the RER on the South African rand using Johansen's method and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The results of the research show that five fundamental variables drove the RER for the 20 years from 1995 to 2014 mainly commodity prices, interest rate differential, net foreign assets, terms of trade, openness and productivity. The most significant of these determinants were commodity prices, openness and productivity. The interaction of commodity prices and the RER point to the fact that South Africa does not suffer from the Dutch Disease. The research also supports the Balassa-Samuelson effect where an increase in productivity causes RER appreciation. In terms of policy, the research recommends that South Africa should continue to strengthen the manufacturing export led strategy as well as diversifying the economy. This entails growing the manufacturing sector, diversifying the export markets to reduce reliance on China and the Euro Zone. South Africa should continue with the inflation targeting policy of the SARB, implemented through the interest rate instrument, which only affects the domestic economy and has no major effect on the RER.

Like many developing countries, South Africa faces a great development problem relating to the high failure rate that is present among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), this is due to the fact that entrepreneurs are not able to turn their businesses into sustainable venture. SMEs play a significant role is a number of economic development issues that face South Africa as a nation. The SME sector has contributed immensely to job creation, poverty alleviation and assisting in the prosperity of the nation. In addition to the above, SMEs are generally inexpensive to start and have the potential to generate massive economic growth in South Africa. Although the SME sector has many positive attributes, there are persisting challenges that plague South African SMEs. Fatoki and Garwe (2010) state that in the South African context, new SMES do not usually move from the existence stage, which is the first stage of growth, to the subsequent stages such as survival, success, take off and resources maturity. As such, it is believed that many of these SMEs do not survive in their first years of operation and thus, do not provide their benefits to society.

In many countries including Zambia, stock markets are perceived to be crucial for economic development because of the financial intermediary role that they have assumed in the financial system. Stock markets are sensitive to the arrival of new information, especially those that are macroeconomic like monetary policy announcements. This study sought to determine the extent to which the Lusaka Stock Exchange reacts to monetary policy actions by examining the response of all companies listed on the stock exchange to policy rate announcements, with the exception of ZCCM holdings. The study also aimed to look at the differential response of bank stock returns to policy rate announcements. In order to examine the impact of the policy rate announcement on the Lusaka Stock Exchange, the event study methodology was adopted to analyse data from January 2011 to June 2016. The data was collected from the LuSE daily trading reports and monetary policy publications from the Bank of Zambia. It was found that the policy rate announcement has an insignificant negative impact on stock prices in the event of a policy rate increase and an insignificant positive impact on stock prices when the policy rate is maintained. Similar findings were observed for bank stock prices and non-bank stock prices. The impact of the policy rate on stock prices has important implications for the monetary policy transmission mechanism, risk and investment management strategies of financial market participants, as well as government policy and actions towards financial markets. This study makes a unique contribution to existing literature because it is the only study in Zambia to have measured the impact of monetary policy on stock prices using the event study approach.

The average charges of officially transferring remittances from South Africa to other Southern African countries have been regarded as expensive compared to other main corridor of south-south remittance, and this has long been recognized as a major drain on the income of migrants and their households. Using data gathered across the SADC countries remittances corridors, this research explored the factors that account for the high costs of officially transferring remittances from South Africa to the SADC region. The average costs were regressed across all types of regulated financial institutions and money transfer operators with the following financial and macroeconomic variables: Real GDP per Capita, Dual exchange rates dummy, exchange rates, dollarization dummy, stock of migrants, volume of remittances, Exchange Control Restrictiveness Index, and the bank concentration. The study found that the main factors explaining the high costs of officially transferring remittances from South Africa to the SADC region were the bank concentration, exchange rate volatility, and the exchange control restrictiveness index. These findings suggest that the costs of officially transferring remittances from South Africa to the SADC region could be lowered by policies to increase competition among South African financial institutions and money transfer service providers, to reduce the country's exchange rate volatility, and to reduce the regulatory barriers that restrict financial services to migrants with non-South African identity documents.

To manage credit risk and improve working capital, many power utility companies have moved consumers from conventional post-payment for electricity to prepayment. Despite the growing use of this prepayment system, the welfare implications of this strategy are unclear and contested. The Zimbabwean utility company, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), introduced prepaid meters in August 2012 and installed over 550,000 prepaid meters by the 31st of December 2015. This thesis' objective was to quantitatively assess the societal costs and benefits of introducing prepaid electricity to Zimbabwe, by calculating the net present value of the estimated annual costs and benefits over time. A qualitative analysis was also conducted, based on a consumer survey of 100 consumers who had switched from the post-paid to the prepaid system. The survey captured consumers' perceptions of the prepaid system's costs and benefits. Results of the study showed that both consumers and the utility company have benefited from the prepaid system. The average net benefit per user under the prepaid system was estimated at US$58.93 per annum. 74% of consumers surveyed confirmed having benefited from the switch to the prepaid system. The main policy recommendation, based on the results of the study, is for ZETDC to continue with its roll out of the prepaid system. However, as the research was limited to the current ZETDC prepaid consumer base of only domestic and small business users, a recommendation for future research would be to evaluate the costs and benefits for larger industrial consumers as well.

Most emerging markets are faced with the predicament of a misalignment, or mismatch, of assets and liabilities in the banking sector where long-term assets are funded by short-term deposits. The South African (SA) banking sector also faces a challenge regarding the composition of the short-term deposits that fund these assets. The large and unstable wholesale funds dominate the funding side of local banks' balance sheets, particularly in the short-term bucket. The danger with wholesale funds arises when they are withdrawn unexpectedly, due to either perceived or realised risk. Due to their bulk, the wholesale funds have the potential to create a funding liquidity risk crisis in a bank. Most banks are unlikely to match these types of withdrawals, and will therefore have a forced asset fire sale to fund them. Retail funds do not face this danger, as it is highly unlikely, in normal market conditions, which many retail depositors would want to withdraw all their funds at the same time. Furthermore, retail funds are a cheaper source of funding compared to wholesale funds, thus making them a bank's preferred source of funding. In as much as they are a preferred source of funding, in the SA banking system retail deposits are very low compared to wholesale funding. This research study explores the funding liquidity risk and the predicament that exists in the SA banking industry by highlighting its main sources, and providing recommendations on how it can be addressed. This is achieved by testing the relationship between the ratio of retail funding to total bank funding (ROBF) and five explanatory variables, namely: household saving rates; retail deposit rates; corporate saving rates; wholesale deposit rates; and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) All Share Index, with the aid of the multiple regression analysis method. The regression analysis was performed on data collected between 2002 and 2011. The research established that household saving rates and retail deposit rates were predictors that were statistically significant in explaining the movement in the ratio of retail funding to total funding.