Financial Liberalization, Bank Restructuring and the Options for Client-Owned Intermediation: Two African Experiences in Rudimentary Financial Markets

Abstract

The impact of structural adjustment programs in Sub-Saharan Africa have now generated a decade long history. The impact of deregulation and privatization on the restructuring of banks and their performance is little studied, along with its implications for servicing constituencies rationed out of the liberalized banks portfolios. This paper reviews this experience of bank restructuring and the implications for the post-liberalization supply of financial services in The Gambia and Mozambique. Lessons for other African countries are highlighted for review