This study analyses selected Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in delineating how commercialized financing structure relates to financial sustainability given the need to control poverty through financially sustainable MFIs. The study takes from a recent SADC microfinance survey which recommended financial rescue packages for ailing MFIs to proffer financial sustainability. This survey failed to specify the form of financing which supports financial sustainability in addition to the inconclusive and little evidence in this regard. We note that though the financing structure and the level of financial sustainability varies with countries, MFIs are generally financially unsustainable. A robust probit model framework affirms the role of financing structure on financial sustainability. Portfolio at risk, cost efficiency and costs linked to deposit attraction explain financial sustainability. We suggest the availing of more donations, upgrading risk management and improving cost efficiency to induce financial sustainability.
This paper examines the efficiency of commercial banks in Namibia using the standard econometric frontier approach. Although two aspects of efficiency (scale and scope) receive our attention, the emphasis is on the latter which pertains to whether a firm produces as efficiently as it possibly can, given its size. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author. Journal compilation (c) 2008 Economic Society of South Africa.
The countries in the Common Monetary Area (CMA), South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, have harmonised their monetary and exchange rate policies in a quasi-monetary union since 1990. Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (LNS) have pegged their currencies to the South African Rand thus effectively surrendering monetary policy to the South African reserve bank. The arrangement has resulted in benefits in the form of lower prices, economy on trading costs, and a large increase in trade volume and cross-border financial transactions. However, one cost that has confronted the LNS economies in this monetary arrangement is the loss of independent monetary policy decision-making for stabilisation purposes. This study applies VAR to trace the impact of South Africa Reserve Bank°Øs (SARB) monetary policy on the LNS economies. Specifically, the study examines how a change in the policy instrument of the Reserve Bank of South Africa affects money, credit and level of prices in the LNS economies and consequently assesses the capability of these economies to undertake independent monetary policy. Both the impulse response functions and the cumulated forecast errors show that the lending rates, level of prices and money supply respond instantaneously to changes in the repo rate by the South African reserve bank. Our analysis confirms that the South African repo rate is the relevant policy instrument
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