Social integration and financial inclusion of forcibly displaced persons in Sub-Saharan African countries

Achugamonu Bede Uzoma,Kehinde A Adetiloye,Patrick O Eke,Adegbite O Esther,Godswill Osagie Osuma

doi:10.21511/ppm.18(3).2020.15

Achugamonu Bede Uzoma, Kehinde A Adetiloye + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(3).2020.15

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Abstract

Most government and international financial institutions worldwide have adopted financial inclusion as a veritable platform for achieving the Social Development Goals of hunger and poverty eradication, inequality reduction, and employment creation. Their efforts will not yield much dividend if a sizeable part of the populace are constrained from social and formal financial inclusion due to social disorder. This study examined the relationship between social seclusion of forcibly displaced persons from formal financial inclusion in twenty-seven Sub-Saharan African countries. Granger Error Correction Method (ECM) with Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) was used to analyze the short panel data obtained from the World Bank database. The study found a negative long-run relationship between social seclusion and financial inclusion. That is, an increase in social menace overtime will result in more people being financially excluded from formal financial transactions. It, therefore, recommends, amongst others, that government should encourage forcibly displaced persons to become gainfully employed and productive. Specifically, persons in refugee and internally displaced persons camps should be trained to acquire skills that will enable them to become self-employed, create wealth for themselves, and contribute actively to the sustainable economic growth of their host country rather than just provide food and other welfare packages as a temporal palliative for survival.

Highlights

At the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Regional Conference held on the 23rd of March, 2015 at Brazzaville, Congo, the President of the World Bank proposed a blueprint for all countries in the world to have Universal Financial Access (UFA) by 2020
This study finds out that there is a long-run causal relationship between social seclusion and financial inclusion for three samples
The rate of this response is not fixed for three sets of countries. It appears that financial inclusion responds faster to social seclusion for countries with a poorly stable financial system than the other two systems

Summary

INTRODUCTION

At the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Regional Conference held on the 23rd of March, 2015 at Brazzaville, Congo, the President of the World Bank proposed a blueprint for all countries in the world to have Universal Financial Access (UFA) by 2020. While many financial institutions (both local and international) and donor agencies have made frantic commitments to drive inclusive financial growth in developing nations of the world, not much attention has been paid to the plight of forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) within and outside the refugee and IDP camps, which constitute a larger part of the most vulnerable people, especially in a crisis or war turn regions of the world. The cardinal focus of the policy is to find ways of providing sustainable financial support to forcibly displaced persons within and outside refugee and IDPs camps and their host communities This will enable them to cater for their needs and engage actively in financial activities that will engender sustainable economic growth (Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion Policy Report, 2017).

AND METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Findings

A Study of Trade-Offs and