Banking in Africa

This paper takes stock of the current
state of banking systems across Sub-Saharan Africa and
discusses recent developments including innovations that
might help Africa leapfrog more traditional banking models.
Using an array of different data, the paper documents that
African banking systems are shallow but stable. African
banks are well capitalized and over-liquid, but lend less to
the private sector than banks in non-African developing
countries. African enterprises and households are less
likely to use financial services than their peers in other
developing countries. The paper also describes a number of
financial innovations across the continent that can help
overcome different barriers to financial inclusion and have
helped to expand the bankable and the banked population.