This book provides a review of the evolution of the post-independence banking system in Africa. There is a strong focus on the problems of restructuring of banking institutions and the management of the bad and non-performing assets of public sector institutions.

Three themes are explored:

• The first is that government interventions in the financial sector, in the post-independence period, were at best largely ineffective as a tool of development and at worst had damaging consequences for the banks, and for the whole economy
• The second theme is that financial liberalization requires an understanding of the first set of financial reforms implemented in post-independence Africa.
•  The third theme is that financial liberalization is made even more difficult in most African countries because it is carried out in response to severe economic crisis and therefor in conditions of acute macroeconomic instability.  

This book is ideally suited for development economics courses as it provides revealing case studies of key countries which complement more theoretical books on money and banking in developing countries.

Contents: Introduction: financial liberalization in difficult circumstances - Banking policy in Botswana: orthodoc but untypical - Banking reform in Ethiopia - The impact of financial sector policies in Ghana - Government policies and the development of banking in Kenya - The impact of public policy on the banking system in Nigeria - Financial repression and financial reform in Uganda - Financial policies and the banking system in Zambia - The limited impact of financial sector reforms in Zimbabwe - Banking development and financial sector reforms in Tanzania, Malawi and the Gambia - Conclusions - Bibliography - Index

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Martin Brownbridge is working with UNCTAD on issues concerning the Least Developed Countries.

Charles Harvey is a Professorial Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex; he is currently on secondment to the Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis.