The CFA Franc real exchange rate is frequently suspected to be overvalued as a result of recent prolonged appreciation of the Euro (the anchor currency). This situation is popularly associated with lose of competitiveness and several studies have tried to establish the relationship between growth and misaligned or overvalued real exchange rates. This study used a panel data cointegration techniques to evaluate the growth effects of real effective exchange rate misalignments for the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CAEMC) using time series data from 1999-2010. To achieve this objective, the Real Effective Equilibrium Exchange Rate for the CFA Franc was first estimated using the Behavioural Equilibrium Exchange Rate (BEER) from which the misalignment was derived. Subsequently, a dynamic panel growth model was estimated using a Generalised Least Squares (GLS) Method, in which among the traditional determinants of growth, our measure of misalignment was included. Moderate and transitory misalignments were found for the six CAEMC member countries except for the Congo Republic were a sustained overvaluation was observed. The growth analysis indicates a positive and significant impact of real exchange rate misalignment to economic growth of the CAEMC member countries.

The need for social cost benefit analysis for appraising industrial projects by development finance institutions and developing economies has been seen to being relevant over the years and even since the 1960s. As such major global organisations, namely the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank have taken a step to sponsor research for developing practical methodologies for this purpose. It is quite evident that these organisations view social cost benefit analysis as a useful tool in project evaluation. These organisations have also issued various publications for this purpose. The first comprehensive methodologies for social cost benefit analysis were developed in the 1960s and this clearly provides the early rise of the usefulness and debate surrounding social cost benefit analysis. A study was performed in India in the early 90s where various projects from a state development finance institution were evaluated in order to conclude if a formal social cost benefit analysis was performed, would the projects been selected for investments by the state development finance institution. This research has been enthused by this Indian study as there is little to no research performed in the South African context for social cost benefit analysis in project evaluation. Previous literature from earlier years regarded the available methodologies for social cost benefit analysis as being too demanding in terms of the skill required as well as the information required for the performance. Over the years, UNIDO has developed software (COMFAR) in order to assist in the application of the methodology for social cost benefit analysis. This software has improved on the feasibility of performing social cost benefit analysis. This research follows the UNIDO Guidelines for Project Evaluation Methodology, which was also used in the Indian study. This methodology has also been incorporated in the COMFAR software. In summary, this research endeavours to conclude on whether there is any value in performing a formal social cost benefit analysis in project evaluation by DFIs.

Corporate Governance in African National Development Banks is critical to their success or failure. These Banks have complex corporate governance structures with hierarchies comprising both national government representatives and in some cases the private sector. By focusing on election years this study aimed to show how external interventions from the owners of the Banks (governments) can unduly influence their performance and sustainability. Two causes of weak governance were identified, these were non-independence of the board and broad and unclear mandates. The study shows an increase in lending during election years, suggesting evidence of non-independence of the board signifying undue political influence and wide mandates leading to "mission creeps" usually encouraged by politicians. Non independence has its effects, these were identified as crowding out of the private sector, misallocation of funds and low profitability. A positive correlation was found between the African National Development Bank lending and private bank lending an indication that the African National Development Banks compete with the private banks instead of performing their counter cyclical role, this in turn leads to crowding out the private banks. Misallocat ion of funds is demonstrated by an increase in lending during election years followed by an increase in bad debts two years after the election year, an indication that loans where given to unviable projects. Lastly the study proves the low profitability effect by showing that loans given out are negatively correlated to the Banks profitability, showing a reduction in Bank profitability as more loans are advanced and vice versa. The findings suggest that non-independent boards and wide and broad mandates weaken African National Development Banks corporate governance, negatively affecting their performance and preventing them from executing their mandates effectively.

Most people in developing countries lack access to clean water, which leads to water-related diseases. The water supply challenges in many developing countries have persisted despite the water sector receiving considerable amount of support from the international organisations and cooperating partners. In this study I analysed different water reforms undertaken in developing market economies with a specific focus on Chile, South Africa and Zambia. The main research question I sought to address is whether commercialisation has proportionately improved water supply delivery in the aforementioned countries. The research employs a qualitative comparative case study approach of three Commercial Utilities (CUs), namely Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC), Johannesburg Water and Aguas Andinas. Performance improvement was assessed using selected indicators under four broad criteria; accessibility, reliability, affordability and profitability for the period 2001 to 2014. The significant finding is that all CUs with different reform models had improved performance after commercialisation which is attributed to adoption of market principles and good corporate practices. The research established that private service delivery with strong state involvement outperformed public service delivery in terms of efficiency, accessibility, reliability and affordability. Privatised Aguas Andinas exhibited the highest level of performance in terms of accessibility, reliability, profitability and affordability. Johannesburg Water performed better than LWSC in terms of accessibility and reliability while LWSC performed better than Johannesburg Water in terms of affordability and profitability across the period 2001 to 2014. LWSC improved service in terms of accessibility, reliability, affordability and operational efficiency after corporatisation. The main conclusion is that even though Aguas Andinas has exhibited the highest level of performance, the strong performance is attributed to strong state involvement, tariff and subside systems, legal and institutional systems, management skills, sound corporate governance, customer orientation and innovation. Therefore, all the three models; privatisation, corporatisation and management contract, are suitable models for developing economies provided the state play its role and CUs adopt best practices.

Telecommunications, Media and Technology (TMT) sector also known as the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector continues to grow in most of the global economies including South Africa. Growth within the sector is attributed to constantly emerging start-up and small micro medium enterprises, adding more competition and forcing incumbents to change the way they do business. Many companies struggle to adapt quickly to rapidly changing technologies that often disrupts existing markets and sometimes introduce new markets. Given TMT sector dynamics and challenges, small and large companies within the sector have recently started embracing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as a growth and defence strategy to ensure that they remain relevant, retain existing markets, expand and venture into new markets in order to continue to create and sustain shareholders value. According to Institute of Management Accountants (1997), the linkage between strategy and value creation can be summarized by two simple laws of value creation; the first law is that management must create value for shareholders; and the second law is that all other stakeholders should also be satisfied in a way that contributes to shareholders value; and the company‟s ability to continue to attract capital by providing incremental value to shareholders is exactly what will allow it to continue to provide attractive products to its customers, attractive employment to its staff, and opportunities for its suppliers. M&A strategies should be executed with the same objective in mind to ensure shareholders value creation. This study investigated M&A performance within the TMT sector in South Africa to understand if they are creating shareholders value given the fact that some of the M&A transactions have failed in the past. The main objective of this research is to assess M&A performance and impact on shareholders value.

Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing increased pressure to find quick, efficient solutions to the challenge of maintaining, improving and investing in new infrastructure. A range of funding options to finance infrastructure development has been used, however fiscal capacity constraints have become a challenge. To balance availability of funding and economic development constraints, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have had to find alternative funding methods. Public private partnerships, as an alternative method, have gained prominence in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study therefore explores the notion of the catalytic effect of public private partnerships on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study uses unbalanced fixed panel data methodology over a cross section of infrastructure projects across Africa. Data obtained over the period 1994 – 2015 is assessed for the catalytic effects of public private partnerships on economic growth. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that PPPs in SSA over the period tested in the study do have an influence and impact on economic growth. However, the effect of PPPs on economic growth was observed to depend on the proxy used, with significant effect only found when the number of PPPs is employed. The results of the study therefore imply that the PPPs examined here do catalyse economic growth in SSA. Recommendations for future studies include: a further probe into which infrastructure financing method in SSA has the most positive catalytic effect in economic growth. The extent of the impact of unmitigated negative externalities created by the implementation of infrastructure projects financed by PPP arrangements.

Today Zimbabwe finds itself on the cusp of a new era, an inflection point which should set the country on a path towards recovery and sustainable economic growth, after years of being in a socio-economic quagmire yet extravagantly endowed with natural resources and extraordinary human capital. This study seeks to examine how best to unlock this untapped and embedded value for the emancipation of Zimbabwe’s people by looking at how other countries have extricated themselves from similar situations by the use of foreign direct investment. Pursuant to this cause, the author identified India as a case study from which Zimbabwe can learn and thus seeks to identify and measure the determinants of foreign direct investment and understand the policy framework underlying these determinants. Gross domestic product, trade, the exchange rate, inflation, foreign reserves and the foreign direct investment restrictiveness index were employed as variables in the research using annual data over a 27 year period from 1990 to 2016. This period was deliberately chosen to capture the impact of the liberalisation and reform efforts which set India on a growth path and today is the biggest recipient of greenfield foreign direct investment. The autoregressive distributed lag cointegration framework was employed as an estimation technique to examine the long-run relationship between foreign direct investment and the chosen explanatory variables. The findings reveal that the exchange rate and the foreign direct investment restrictiveness index are the key determinants of FDI in India with a negative relationship, thus a stronger Indian rupee and better restrictiveness index rating lead to more foreign direct investment inflows. Based on the results, placed in the context of India’s foreign direct investment policy framework, the study makes bespoke and befitting recommendations to the Zimbabwean authorities on how to use the import and the tenets of the foreign direct investment restrictiveness index as a basis for devising far reaching reforms needed to attract foreign direct investment for the sustainable development of Zimbabwe.

This paper aims at facilitating, through research and increased understanding, the inflow of investments into renewable energy (RE) assets. The private sector represents vast pools of funding that is needed for RE capacity to be unlocked on a sustainable and large scale rate. Through using a grounded theory research design methodology, the drivers and restraints identified were the risks and rewards involved in investing into a RE asset, specifically the macro-economic and microeconomic risk and reward factors involved. Renewable energy assets were found to closely be affected by government policies and the stability thereof. Return attributes to renewable energy were a high cash yielding, long term in nature and inflation indexed payments - all attractive attributes to pension funds, the largest private investment group with regards to assets under management. Through the grounded theory methodology process a causal loop diagram (CLD) was built, representative of the insights of RE as an asset class- gained from the literature. One leveraging factor identified in the CLD to increase investment is government policy stability which will substantially decrease perceived risks to investors and facilitate in increased investments into renewable energy assets.

After the 2008 financial crisis, which was heavily influenced by the housing market bubble, studying the housing market has become a subject of major interest to many scholars and investors globally. Literature identifies several key factors that influence housing demand including, employment, income levels, gross domestic product, monetary policy and demographics among others. This thesis investigates the factors that influence housing demand in South Africa and incorporates quantitative analysis on the relationship between interest rates, exchange rates, inflation and housing demand. Most studies on this subject have been conducted in the developed market context, as such, this research study aims to fill the gap and influence future thinking in the emerging market context. There is currently limited research on the relationship between interest rates, exchange rates, inflation in relation to housing demand in the developing world including South Africa. In the analysis, housing demand is measured by mortgage loans disbursed monthly by the top four commercial banks in South Africa. In addition to desktop research, the research also incorporates perspectives and thinking from some of the renowned professionals and academics in the housing market. Monthly time series data (from 1995 up to 2015) on interest rates, exchange rates, inflation (CPI) and mortgage loans disbursed was obtained from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) website. Based on multiple regression analysis, the output results are in line with views held by most academics in the literature review. It was observed from the results that the housing demand (as measured by the mortgage loans disbursed to individuals) is negatively correlated to prime overdraft/ inflation rate and positively correlated to foreign exchange rate. As such, an increase in interest and inflation rates, result in a decrease in housing demand. An increase in exchange rate results in decreased housing demand.

The challenge of development in South Africa is to increase employment, broaden distribution of wages and enhance skills of all workers, but particularly those workers disadvantaged by apartheid. The high unemployment rate and unemployability of a large section of the population, self-employment through small business presents the only realistic solution. But successful start-up and sustainability of such enterprises requires readily available access to robust and effective microfinance and business support programmes. This research studied SMME access to state and commercial financing vehicles and how this impacted on their growth prospects. The results from case studies show pervasive lack of access to finance by the SMMEs and that business start-ups and cash flows are financed mainly from savings and, to a lesser extent, from simple instruments, such as bank overdraft; While these kinds of financing have led to increased stock carrying and modest revenue growths, it has led to neither expansion of business nor significant increases in employment. Although the results show that banks have made big strides in reaching out to previously excluded and unbanked consumers and that they are more visible to the SMME than state institutions, the business owners show high levels of risk and debt aversion by not taking advantage of available SMME focused loans offered by the banks. Albeit the study could not satisfactorily and authoratively establish causes of this aversion beyond information deficiency and incoordination within banks, it is clear that it (aversion) led to a form of self-censure to obtaining loans. More research is needed to get a better understanding of this phenomenon.