The authors investigate the microfinance regulatory regimes in Benin, Ghana, and Tanzania, with a view to identifying key issues and lessons on how the overall regulatory framework affects integration of microfinance institutions into the financial system. The authors find that recognizing...

The note reviews the structure and performance of Ghana's rural, and micro-finance institutions (RMFIs), through a financial system, namely comprising three main categories: formal, semi-formal, and informal systems. It then analyzes the liberalization of its financial policies (late 1980s) and...

African governments place high priority on developing their indigenous private sector to participate in and lead future growth. This goal is constrained, in part, by the absence of a diversified financial sector capable of meeting the full range of the private sector's legitimate demand for...

This study investigates three issues concerning the role of indigenous entrepreneurs in the transition from a state-led development strategy to a more market-oriented approach with the private sector taking the lead: 1) the effects of liberalizing the policy regime on the conditions for micro...

This study investigates the apparent contradiction between the high propensity of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to identify finance as their primary constraint and the view of banks that SME lending remains low in part for lack of bankable demand. Surveys were conducted of...