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African Contemporary Policy Advances in Sustainable Consumer Protection DOI: https://doi.org/10.31920/1750-4562/2019/14n3a1
Laura Best, Miemie Struwig and Sibongile Muthwa7
This paper explores sustainable consumer protection policies in Africa in search of contemporary policy advances that can serve as bases or platforms for policy discussions within the African Union. Such a discussion platform is particularly pertinent in light of the African Union’s resolution to establish a free trade zone, which should promote increased movement in consumer goods between countries on the continent.
Using purposive sampling, requests for copies of Acts and policy documents were sent to twelve UNCTAD member-states in Africa. These documents were content analysed using the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection. Five specific policy advances were identified: policy mechanisms incorporating sustainable consumption provisions; definitions which should clarify what constitutes unsustainable practices; product safety definitions to include products produced unsustainably; government directives which defined and set minimum standards on sustainability; and creating enabling policy conditions to encourage the growth and establishment of consumer organisations to educate consumers about sustainable consumption. These policy advances offered useful ideas that can be integrated into consumer protection policies and reflected the realities of the African consumer market
African economic integration initiatives have been judged by models and theoretical concepts developed outside Africa. Findings from such unrealistic and simplified models, rather than augment the continental initiatives, often create pessimism among stakeholders in the continent and outside. Hence, this paper emphasizes the fact that integration attempts should be evaluated in the context of their objectives, and the political, economic, and institutional setups in which they operate. To understand the economic integration dynamics in Africa and other developing regions, our sets of analysis should go beyond the common approaches which are based on optimum currency area (OCA) theory and experiences pertinent to north-north monetary integration. African countries need to adopt an alternative model that make the integration initiatives less costly and engender pessimism. Empowering citizens and stakeholders to make informed decisions may also reduce the existing pessimism about a Pan-African Economic Community initiative.
The Central Bank of Kenya has resolved to increase public confidence in Kenyan banks through increased transparency. In the estimation of the Central Bank of Kenya, sufficient qualitative and quantitative disclosures will help instill public confidence in the financial sector in Kenya. However, the extent to which Kenyan financial institutions have adopted integrated reporting is not known. The study thus examined the adoption of integrated reporting by the financial institutions listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). The study’s population was the 22 financial firms/institutions listed on the NSE. A six-year review was conducted on the audited annual reports of the firms from 2012 to 2017 and a rating scale was used to analyse the level and trend of integrated reporting adoption by the firms. In addition, a Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test was used to test whether there was any significant difference in the level of integrated reporting across years. It was found that the majority of the financial institutions in Kenya have not fully adopted integrated reporting. However, the extent of integrated reporting had significantly increased over the years among the few firms that adopted it.
This study examines the impact of financial crisis as a shock on agricultural sector of the South African economy. Agriculture is regarded as a critical source of foreign exchange, employment and poverty alleviation in South Africa. Using a computable general equilibrium model of the South African economy based on the theory of ORANI-G framework, it was discovered that the impact of the financial crisis on agricultural sector was harmful to the economy. Job losses were recorded in the sector as well as decline in household demand. The financial crisis was also found to be harsh on domestic prices and general household consumption levels. The findings have far-reaching implications for research and practice. The results provide evidence of the vulnerability of the South African agricultural sector to any financial shocks.
The role of institutional investors in shaping corporate governance among banks attracted attention following the collapse of seven banks in Ghana. The study thus investigates the impact of institutional investors on corporate governance practice and performance of commercial banks in Ghana. Both corporate reporting and audit qualities are used as measures of corporate governance whilst Return on Assets (ROA) is used as a measure of performance. Thirty-two commercial banks in Ghana are used for the study. The annual reports of the banks from 2012 to 2016 provided the data for the study. System GMM is employed to estimate the impact of institutional investors on corporate governance practice of the banks. The research evidence shows that institutional investors influence the quality of corporate reporting and auditing of the banks in Ghana. The results further suggest that institutional investors impacts on the ROA of the banks.
This study aimed at determining the impact of opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial role models and entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial intention among Generation Y students. Three hypotheses were posited and sample data of 261 were collected from Johannesburg, the South Africa's biggest city, to empirically test these hypotheses. The results of this study showed that, in the context of students within the Generation Y Cohort, opportunity recognition, entrepreneurial role models and entrepreneurial passion positively and significantly influences entrepreneurial intentions. These findings contribute to broadening the scope of academic discourse in the entrepreneurship and business management domains, particularly from a South African perspective, and the identified relationships which bear important practical implications for Generation Y students, management of universities and government officials. This study contributes to the current body of Africa's entrepreneurship literature – a field that has received little research attention in developing countries like South Africa.
Due to the huge economic and social cost of the global financial crisis (GFC) on the financial system, central banks and other stakeholders in charge of managing financial stability have focused their efforts on the development of instruments and methodologies that will be useful in identifying, assessing, and monitoring potential vulnerabilities in the financial system. Prominent among these efforts is the construction of a composite index known as the financial stress index (FSI). The FSI is a single aggregated indicator constructed to measure the vulnerability of the financial sector to both internal and external shocks. This study employed the variance equal weighing (VEW) and the principal component analysis (PCA) to construct an FSI for the Nigerian financial market. The result of the analysis shows that financial stress can be identified by the FSI. The study recommended regular assessment of the financial system so that potential threats can be detected early and measures put in place to mitigate their impact.
The shadow banking system is an alternative source of finance to formal banking channels and has expanded rapidly in the past two decades. This expansion has had a two-dimensional impact on economies: a threat to financial stability and an increase in credit extended to firms. In this paper, we analyse whether the growth of shadow banking has had any effect on the financial stability of emerging market economies or not. We use a Global VAR Model and report impact elasticities and impulse response functions. Our results show strong cross-country financial linkages through the shadow banking sector among emerging economies and also between emerging economies and the global economy. We suggest a pro-active and targeted approach to regulation where transmission of financial disturbances in one country can be nipped before they can impact other countries.
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