Introduction: a golden pendulum -- Context for credit : a setting at the source of the Nile -- Three faces of the loan : charity, usury-- and fantasy -- Plans and dreams : an integrated approach on paper -- Lenders and lineages : nepotism as loyalty -- Untying a package deal : borrowing green...

With a surface area of 1,267,000 square kilometres, Niger is a vast Sahelian country located in the south of the Sahara Desert, which covers over two thirds of its land. In 2015, it had an estimated population of 17 million inhabitants and a particularly high growth rate of 3.3 per cent. It is...