This paper analyse the looming COVID-19 global debt crisis. The high debt incurred during the pandemic period by many countries combined with tightening global financial conditions such as increase in interest rate can trigger a global debt crisis for heavily indebted countries. I suggest some...

The current debate on financial inclusion pays little attention to whether financial inclusion is pro-cyclical with the fluctuating business cycle. This article investigates the relationship between financial inclusion and the business cycle. The findings reveal that the level of savings and the...

This paper examines whether economic policy uncertainty (EPU) reduces the level of financial inclusion. I predict that high EPU should have a negative effect on the level of financial inclusion. I argue that high EPU will discourage financial institutions from providing basic financial services...

This article examines various conditions for optimality in financial inclusion. The optimal level of financial inclusion is achieved when basic financial services are provided to members of the population at a price that is affordable and that price is also economically sufficient to encourage...

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the recent evidence on financial inclusion from all regions of the World. It identifies the emerging themes in the financial inclusion literature as well as some controversy in policy circles regarding financial inclusion. In particular, I draw...

We review the recent academic and policy literature on bank loan loss provisioning (LLP) to identify several advances in the literature, to highlight some challenges in LLP research and suggest possible directions for future research with some concluding remarks. Among other things, we observe...

This study investigates whether the competence of central bank governors affect the stability of the financial system they are responsible for. Using publicly available information about central bank governors from 2000 to 2016 together with data on financial stability and the macro-economy, the...

This article offers a number of policy solutions to improve financial inclusion during the COVID-19 crisis. COVID-19 is a global health crisis to which some of the usual global solutions like greater financial inclusion can help. Financial inclusion remains a powerful development tool to improve...

This article critically assess digital finance as a pro-poor intervention in the development finance space. It examines the turn from ‘microfinance for the poor' to ‘digital finance for the poor'. It then considers three key issues and contest the argument that digital finance is pro-poor....

This article presents some criticisms of financial inclusion. It notes that (i) financial inclusion is an invitation to live by finance and leads to the financialisation of poverty; (ii) some of the benefits of financial inclusion disappears after a few years; (iii) financial inclusion ignores...