Informal financial institutions (IFIs), among them the ubiquitous rotating savings and credit associations, are of ancient origin. Owned and self-managed by local people, poor and non-poor, they are self-help organizations which mobilize their own resources, cover their costs and finance their...

By the mid-1970s, in virtually all of Africa, strategies of modernization and technology transfer had clearly failed to initiate self-sustained processes of development. Government intervention and centralized planning had spurred economic disaster, rather than growth. In the world of finance,...

By the mid-1970s, in virtually all of Africa, strategies of modernization and technology transfer had clearly failed to initiate self-sustained processes of development. Government intervention and centralized planning had spurred economic disaster, rather than growth. In the world of finance,...