Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Financial inclusion can increase economic growth and productivity and reduce poverty and inequality by helping people and firms—particularly SMEs—to save and invest, smooth consumption, and better manage financial risks. This paper highlights Niger’s lag compared to other WAEMU countries in terms of access to and use of formal financial services, including for women and youth, and underscores key demand and supply side challenges to financial inclusion as well as structural impediments. It lays out key priorities for Niger to harness the potential of greater financial inclusion to support the country’s development agenda, including efforts to tackle low financial literacy, promote digitization, and address informality.

Money and Monetary Policy --- International Economics --- Industries: Financial Services --- Finance: General --- Demography --- Monetary Policy --- International Agreements and Observance --- International Organizations --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Economic Development: Financial Markets --- Saving and Capital Investment --- Corporate Finance and Governance --- Financial Literacy --- Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy --- Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation --- Monetary Systems --- Standards --- Regimes --- Government and the Monetary System --- Payment Systems --- Demographic Economics: General --- Monetary economics --- International institutions --- Finance --- Population & demography --- Distributed ledgers --- Monetary policy --- International organization --- Financial inclusion --- Financial markets --- Financial services --- Population and demographics --- Digital financial services --- Technology --- Digital currencies --- International agencies --- Financial services industry --- Technological innovations --- Population --- Niger

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Niger’s exposure to recurrent shocks, including climate shocks, increases its vulnerability to food insecurity. This paper aims to quantify the combined effects of climate shocks and food insecurity on key economic variables and identify the most effective mitigation policy responses using a general equilibrium model. Results indicate that rural households would be the most affected by a climate shock resulting in a decline in domestic agricultural production, which would reduce their consumption, erode their capital, and thus increase urban-rural inequalities. Simulations show that cash transfers and the reduction of internal mobility costs appear to be more effective in mitigating the impact on households of a climate shock on agricultural production.

Money and Monetary Policy --- International Economics --- Macroeconomics --- Environmental Economics --- Agriculture & Food Policy --- Monetary Policy --- International Agreements and Observance --- International Organizations --- General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium: General --- Agricultural Policy --- Food Policy --- Climate --- Natural Disasters and Their Management --- Global Warming --- Macroeconomics: Consumption --- Saving --- Wealth --- Aggregate Factor Income Distribution --- Monetary economics --- International institutions --- Climate change --- Poverty & precarity --- Monetary policy --- International organization --- Consumption --- National accounts --- Environment --- Food security --- Poverty --- Income --- International agencies --- Economics --- Climatic changes --- Niger

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The three countries covered in this first report, Mali, Chad and Niger, share a number of common characteristics and face a similar set of challenges, which provides the foundation for this joint-review approach. All three are low-income landlocked economies. Each relies heavily on the agricultural sector as its primary source of income and livelihoods, and each has a large livestock subsector that is based in part on traditional nomadic pastoralism. All countries have important natural resource industries, gold for Mali, uranium and oil for Niger, and oil for Chad, which represent the bulk of export earnings and public revenue. This dependence on the primary sector renders these economies highly vulnerable to weather-related shocks and volatile commodity prices. Each is struggling to overcome a legacy of instability and violence, which is complicated both by the fragility of domestic socio-political conditions and the severity of regional security challenges. Finally, all three countries are members of a monetary union that uses a regional currency pegged to the euro and exercises significant influence over the macroeconomic policies of its member states. At the center of the trade-off between stabilization and development lies public investment management, at macroeconomic and financial management levels. Faced with repeated negative shocks, countries tend to cut ongoing and planned public investment projects which are often designed to reduce drivers of fragility and strengthen the resilience of economies, thus perpetuating risks of falling into fragility traps. Hence, Section three discusses the impact of public investment volatility on its quality in Chad, Mali and Niger, and explores possible options in terms of macroeconomic and public financial management to smooth public investment budget execution.

Access to Finance --- Accounting --- Banking Sector --- Cash Transfers --- Central Banks --- Commercial Banks --- Commodity Prices --- Contracts --- Credibility --- Creditworthiness --- Decentralization --- Developing Countries --- Economic Development --- Economic Growth --- Economic Investment & Savings --- Equity --- Expenditures --- Exporters --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Management --- Fiscal & Monetary Policy --- Fiscal Policy --- Foreign Direct Investment --- Gross Domestic Product --- Human Resources --- Inflation --- Infrastructure Investment --- Insurance --- Investment Climate --- Loans --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Microfinance Institutions --- Monetary Policy --- Moral Hazard --- Natural Disasters --- Poverty --- Poverty Reduction --- Price Stability --- Price Volatility --- Private Investment --- Pro-Poor Growth --- Public Debt --- Public Spending --- Purchasing Power --- Tariffs --- Tax Exemptions --- Taxes --- Transparency