The study investigated two aspects, namely, (1) the impact of renewable energy consumption on economic growth in Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) and (2) whether education is a channel through which renewable energy consumption affects economic growth in BRICS. Panel data analysis such as fully modified ordinary least squares, pooled ordinary least squares and fixed effects methods were used with data ranging from 1994 to 2015. Both models across all the three estimation techniques show that renewable energy consumption had a significant negative effect on economic growth in support of the findings by Silva et al. (2012) and Lee and Jung (2018). What is also clear across all the three panel data analysis methods used is that education reduced the size of the negative effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth in BRICS. In other words, education is a channel through which renewable energy consumption's influence on economic growth is enhanced, in support of views by Dunn and Mutti (2004), Ozcicek andAgpak (2017) and Lawrence et al. (1991). The implication of the study is that BRICS countries are therefore urged to invest more in education as that is more likely to enhance the impact of renewable energy consumption on economic growth.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of firm-specific characteristics on the accessibility of firm financing in Zimbabwe using 2011 data from World Bank enterprise surveys. The results of the study show that firm characteristics in Zimbabwe determine the type of financing that is used for investment and working capital purposes. Small firms seem to rely more on internal financing as opposed to using bank funds, probably due to their small operations and lack of assets to put up as collateral. The larger firms however find it easier to access bank finance as they are much older in terms of age, have developed good relations with their financial services’ providers and are also able to provide the required collateral to back their lines of credit. Both domestic and foreign-owned firms highlighted financial constraints as a major obstacle to their businesses. However foreign firms seemed to access bank loans easier than domestic firms. Also, gender seems to play a minor role in the financing decisions of the firm. It is therefore recommended that the Government engages the financial market intermediaries to find feasible business financing solutions for all sized firms, especially those owned by locals. This would lead to the much-needed economic growth through investment attraction and employment creation.

Access to formal credit and other financial instruments remains a challenge for the majority of households in South Africa. The objective of this study was, therefore, to determine the characteristics of credit instruments issued by stokvels to households in South Africa. Prior studies have generally focused on mobilization of savings through stokvels while none has paid particular attention to the credit supply function of stokvels. This study attempts to fill this gap by using a self-administered research questionnaire on a sample of 386 respondents. Members of stokvels were surveyed from the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor and correlation analyses. Results show that stokvels issue short-term loans from less than 3 to 6 months. Interest rates are high ranging from 25% to 35% and are charged monthly. Loan sizes are small with approximately two-thirds of the respondents receiving loans above R500 while the remaining third received less than R500. Finally, all loans are secured by the borrower’s identification document or bank card and personal identification number. The results of this study have policy implications for financial institutions in South Africa.

Renewable energy which include biogas has been identified as a possible panacea to provide a cheaper energy, more accessible and environmentally sustainable. However, its adoption and use has been limited despite the important trade-offs it offers to rural households. Literature on agricultural innovations revealed that perceptions have an impact on decision making in respect of adoption of new technology and biogas is no exception. But there is paucity of systematic studies on the adoption and perception of biogas. This study was aimed at identifying the factors affecting adoption of biogas production, with emphasis on perceptions by means of a cross-sectional survey of 48 households. A binary logistic regression analysis revealed that age has a negative influence on biogas adoption, whilst employment status, land size and education have positive impacts on biogas adoption. Information on the economic benefits of low cost biogas should be made accessible to rural households.

Migrant remittances increasingly constitute a significant source of financial inflows into emerging markets. Hitherto, extant studies have focused nearly exclusively on the macroeconomic benefits of remittances. Such studies have documented that the top benefits that accrue to the receiving country of remittances include: savings mobilisation, fostering intermediation, investment, sustenance of families and the enabling of access to health care and education by households who ordinarily would not afford to pay for these services. This study departs from the norm and investigated the migrant remittance patterns from a micro-level perspective by focusing on South Africa which is one of the top twenty remittance receiving countries in the world. The South Africa-National Income Dynamics Study dataset was employed in this study. Firstly, this study established that remittances constitute a significant source of income for households in South Africa. Secondly, it was established that the remittance variable is positively related to the household income variable and the result was highly statistically significant. Thirdly, the results of this study confirmed that the level of remittances is dependent on the level of education of the household member, with the inclination of the highly educated migrant worker to send more money to support their household. The South African government should consider as a policy instrument encouraging migrant workers in the diaspora to remit more money back into the country through the facilitation of ease of access of financial services.