ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study seeks to analyse the financial sector’s (commercial banks and the Bank of Namibia) policy interventions towards creating an inclusive financial system. To achieve this the objective of this study is in three folds, firstly to examine the level and extent of financial inclusiveness in Namibia, secondly to evaluate financial sector (commercial banks and the Bank of Namibia) policies to ascertain their effectiveness in promoting access to finance in Namibia, and thirdly to review international experiences to provide key learning lessons for Namibia’s financial system improvement. It is important that the problems associated with the high level of financial exclusion are understood. Through an analysis of the theoretical information and empirical results it is possible to establish how to improve financial inclusion which is critical for development and economic growth. Financial Inclusion (FI) has become a key pillar of development policy in a number of countries around the world on account of the fact that exclusive development is not sustainable. The paper explored the role of Mobile Money Services (MMS) in enhancing financial inclusion. The study was motivated by the proliferation of mobile phones amongst low income earners, the prepaid billing system sensitive to users’ incomes, adoption of ICT by government and the private sector that has enhanced e-commerce readiness of Uganda, as well as the launch of three Mobile Money Services in the country. A qualitative analysis of the web content of the three MMS providers was undertaken and focused on issues related to services provided; transaction charges; number of registered customers; number and volume of transactions; stakeholders; user interfaces and security; institutional relationships; policy and regulation; as well as appropriateness of the current business model(s). The findings indicate that while the MMS have enormous potential to enhance FI, it would require an open business model that involves all stakeholders to establish a truly national solution. Furthermore, the initial contribution of MMS to FI is in improving money transfer by lowering the transaction costs for small volumes. As a way forward, the regulatory authorities need to establish a legal framework that does not stifle innovation but ensures safety for customers’ savings. From the literature it becomes clear that there are various advantages associated with inclusive financial system. Various studies have demonstrated the positive correlation between financial inclusion and economic growth and poverty alleviation. Most of the data used in the study were collected by means of desk review for secondary data. Various articles and annual reports of commercial banks and regulators were analysed to provide an overview of the current state of financial inclusion in Namibia. However, primary data were also used to analyse the current initiatives of the commercial banks. The study finds that there are policy interventions that are in place and are being pursued by various players aimed at improving the public access to financial services. Results of the recently published FinMark2011 Survey report also indicate that 51 percent of adults are now included in the financial system compared to 31 percent recorded during the 2007 survey. Finally the study’s recommendations highlight various initiatives and activities which different stakeholders should undertake to improve the level of financial inclusion in the economy.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African financial sector is developed by world standards, surpassing those of other emerging and developed countries. However, despite all this development in the financial sector, the country has low levels of savings. This contradicts some of the available literature which explains the link between financial development and savings. Based on this background, the study empirically examines the relationship between financial development and savings mobilization in South Africa, employing the Johansen cointegration test for the period 1980 to 2012. Based on the lifecycle hypothesis, a model linking savings and its determinants was specified. The empirical results revealed that there is a long-term relationship between savings and the other variables used in the model. The different measures which were employed to measure financial development were found to be positive and significant, implying that financial sector development impacts positively on savings. An interesting observation from the empirical results is the negative relationship between the rate of interest and savings which implies that South Africans are net borrowers as the income effect surpasses the substitution effect. This in part explains the low levels of savings being experienced by the country since an increase in the rate of interest results in people paying more to service their debt and hence a reduction in savings.

Thesis (PhD (Economics)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Using an econometric approach on panel data collected from 53 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Uganda over a period of six years (annual), this study has identified the determinants of sustainability and outreach of MFIs. In addition, the study has also used survey data from 31 non-Bank of Uganda (BOU) regulated MFIs or Tier 4 MFIs, four BOU-regulated non-bank MFIs, 12 commercial banks and the BOU itself to assess the effects of financial regulation of MFIs on their sustainability and outreach. The results indicate that sustainability is positively and significantly driven by real effective lending rates and age of an MFI, and negatively by the ratio of gross outstanding loan portfolio to total assets, the ratio of average loan size to the national per capita income, the unit cost of loans disbursed, and a group-based delivery mechanism compared to an individual-based delivery mechanism. Outreach is positively and significantly driven by an MFI being a savings and credit co-operative (SACCO) compared to being a private company, effectiveness of governance, the age of an MFI, the ratio of gross outstanding loan portfolio to total assets, and the ratio of salary/wage paid to staff to the national per capita income, and negatively by the ratio of average loan size to the national per capita income and the unit cost of loans disbursed. In the short run, financial regulation negatively influences the outreach of MFIs, but positively affects their sustainability. In the long term, financial regulation positively influences both the sustainability and the outreach of MFIs. The results suggest a number of policy options. First, the MFIs should focus on the real effective lending rate, given its significance in their sustainability. Second, for a real effective lending rate to be relatively low, the rate of inflation should be low. This calls for prudent monetary policy management by the government. Thirdly, the cost of doing business should be kept low. This calls for prudence in business management by the MFIs and creating a cost-effective business environment by the government. While the results are tentative, in order to expand outreach more SACCOs should be established and the MFIs should commit more funds to lending purposes compared to other investments. Finally, before enacting financial legislation, it is important that its benefits and costs are adequately assessed to ensure that the benefits outweigh the costs both in the short and long term.

Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sanlam has long been stereotyped as an Afrikaans company. It has been positioned in Afrikaner nationalist historiography as one of a number of Afrikaner economic, cultural and political institutions that emerged alongside British ones in the early twentieth century as Afrikaners strove to assert their identity and independence. Much of the existing literature on the history of Sanlam has focused on the role that the company played in promoting this independence by mobilising savings for investment in Afrikaner businesses. This study challenges this conventional view of Sanlam. It argues that Sanlam was established as a South African company in a British industry of which the inclusion and empowerment of Afrikaners formed one aspect. It was a national institution that tried to represent South Africa at all levels. This study demonstrates Sanlam’s inclusiveness as a South African company by analysing its client profile from its establishment as a modest life insurance company in 1918 to its transformation into a diversified financial services group by 2004. It shows that Sanlam did not only target and attract Afrikaans-speaking clients, but included as wide a spectrum of clients as possible within the political and market constraints of the time. It did this by operating as a bilingual company, including working classes through industrial insurance and group schemes and by offering non-traditional life insurance products and ancillary financial services that met a range of needs. In this way Sanlam set itself apart from its competitors. Its clients included people from both sides of the demographic and social divide. Clients included English and Afrikaans-speakers, blacks and whites, young and old, male and female, and lower and upper class. Restrictions and exclusions were based on risk and not on race, sex or class. Sanlam broadened its prospects even further into the South African market during the second half of its history. This was in response to events such as the formation of the Republic in 1961, the growth of the South African economy, the deregulation of the financial sector in the 1980s and 1990s, and the collapse of Apartheid in the early 1990s. By 2004 Sanlam had completed its transformation into a diversified financial services group that provided a range of life insurance and financial services solutions for individuals, groups and businesses from various walks of life. The Group could now shift its focus not only onto further expansion into the South African and neighbouring African markets, but onto the rest of Africa and other emerging markets abroad. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sanlam is lank reeds bekend as ‘n Afrikaanse maatskappy, een van ‘n aantal ekonomiese, kulturele en politieke instellings wat gedurende die vroeë twintigste eeu ontwikkel het met die doel om die Afrikaner se identitieit en onhafhanklikheid te bevorder. Bestaande literatuur oor die geskiedenis van Sanlam fokus sterk op die rol van die maatskappy deur sy verkryging van belegggings vir Afrikanerbesighede. Hierdie studie betwis so ‘n konvensionele siening van Sanlam. Dit betoog dat Sanlam gestig is as ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse maatskappy in ‘n Britse industrie, waar die insluiting en bemagtiging van die Afrikaner slegs een aspek gevorm het. Sanlam was ‘n nasionale genootskap wat Suid-Afrika op alle vlakke probeer verteenwoordig het. Die studie toon Sanlam se insluiting as ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse maatskappy, deur ‘n ontleding van sy kliënteprofiel sedert sy stigting as ‘n beskeie lewensversekeringsmaatskappy in 1918 tot met sy transformasie in 2004 as ‘n gediversifieerde finansiële dienste groep. Dit wys dat Sanlam nie net Afrikaanssprekende kliënte bedien het nie, maar ‘n wye teikengroep binne die politieke en mark beperkinge van die spesifieke era. Albei amptelike landstale is gebruik, die werkersklas is deur industriële versekering en groepskemas betrek en nie-tradisionele lewensversekeringsprodukte en finansiële dienste is aangebied. Hierin het Sanlam homself van sy mededingers onderskei. Kliënte het mense van alle demografiese en sosiale verskille ingesluit. Daar was Engels- en Afrikaanstaliges, swart en wit, jonk en oud, manlik en vroulik, en polishouers van die laer en hoër klasse. Sanlam het gedurende die tweede helfte van sy geskiedenis verder in die Suid-Afrikaanse mark uitgebrei. Dit was in antwoord op gebeure soos die stigting van die Republiek in 1961, die groei van die ekonomie, die deregulering van die finansiële sektor in die 1980s en 1990s, en die beëindiging van apartheid gedurende die vroeë 1990s. Teen 2004 was Sanlam volkome getransformeer tot ‘n gediversifiseerde finansiële dienste groep met ‘n reeks lewensversekering- en finansiële produkte beskikbaar aan individue, groepe en besighede uit alle dele van die bevolking. Die Groep kon nou uitbrei, nie net in Suid-Afrika en sy buurlande nie, maar na die res van Afrika en ander opkomende markte oorsee.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

<p>This study was on the anticipated impact of GATS on the financial services industry in Africa. The paper examined the possible positive and negative impact of the GATS agreement on the financial services industry in the African countries. The research focused on the banking sector and the insurance sector as the main financial sectors under investigation.</p>

<p>The objective of this research was to draw a relationship between legal and institutional frameworks in a country, and the competitiveness of that country as a destination for investment either as real investment or portfolio investment for infrastructure development.</p>

This case study explored the lessons arising from the implementation of the Insurance Preparedness Project. This was a pilot project funded by the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority as part of a strategy for transforming the insurance industry and to establish a model for learnership implementation.Financial services industry.

Realistic Job Previews have been shown to impact newcomers to jobs through ircreased self-selection, reduced turnover, eased adjustment, improved performance and increased job satisfaction. To address a turnover problem, Realistic Job Previews were implemented in hiring for two entry level positions in half of 539 branch offices of a large financial services organization. Subjects consisted of 122 Service Representatives and 98 Financial Representatives. Eight months after implementation, turnover rates were compared for control and experimental groups. There was no significant difference between turnover among Service Representatives. Financial Representatives in the experimental group had lower turnover rates (p < .10), with the difference increasing over time. Comparing the turnover rates between three and six months tenure resulted in a statistically significant difference (p < .05).