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Africa > Uganda

You are looking at 1 - 4 of 4 items for :

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Cover FinTech Notes
Tokenization and Financial Market Inefficiencies
Itai Agur
,
German Villegas Bauer
,
Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli
,
Maria Soledad Martinez Peria
, and
Brandon Tan
Most financial assets are digital today. Tomorrow, they may be tokenized. Tokenization implies recording and transferring assets on a widely shared and trusted digital ledger that can be programmed. Interest in tokenization is strong and experiments abound, but what are the consequences of this new trend for financial markets? This note introduces a taxonomy and a conceptual framework centered on market inefficiencies to evaluate this question. Some inefficiencies could decline across the asset life cycle. Others would remain, however, and new ones could emerge. Issuing, servicing, and redeeming assets might involve fewer intermediaries and thus become cheaper. The costs of trading assets may also decrease as tokenization lowers some counterparty risks and search frictions and offers flexibility in settlement. Additionally, greater competition among brokers could lower transaction fees. However, tokenization may amplify shocks if it induces institutions to become more interconnected and hold lower liquidity buffers or higher leverage, potentially jeopardizing financial stability. Programs themselves may introduce new risks related to strings of contingent contracts or faulty code. While competition may grow among financial intermediaries, the provision of market infrastructure could become more concentrated due to network effects.
Keywords:
Tokenization; central banks; asset lifecycle; financial markets; financial asset market friction; B. market infrastructure investment externality; financial market inefficiency; IMF Library; Note 2025/001; D. knowledge externality; Bonds; Smart contracts; Securities markets; Liquidity; Blockchain and DLT; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Impact of COVID-19: Nowcasting and Big Data to Track Economic Activity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Brandon Buell
,
Reda Cherif
,
Carissa Chen
,
Jiawen Tang
, and
Nils Wendt
The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the critical need for detailed, timely information on its evolving economic impacts, particularly for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where data availability and lack of generalizable nowcasting methodologies limit efforts for coordinated policy responses. This paper presents a suite of high frequency and granular country-level indicator tools that can be used to nowcast GDP and track changes in economic activity for countries in SSA. We make two main contributions: (1) demonstration of the predictive power of alternative data variables such as Google search trends and mobile payments, and (2) implementation of two types of modelling methodologies, machine learning and parametric factor models, that have flexibility to incorporate mixed-frequency data variables. We present nowcast results for 2019Q4 and 2020Q1 GDP for Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana, and argue that our factor model methodology can be generalized to nowcast and forecast GDP for other SSA countries with limited data availability and shorter timeframes.
Keywords:
model prediction; quantile plot; ML model; GDP YoY; data variable; YoY percent change; Factor models; Machine learning; Time series analysis; Spot exchange rates; Mobile banking; Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa
Cover IMF Working Papers
Drivers of Financial Access: the Role of Macroprudential Policies
Ms. Corinne C Delechat
,
Lama Kiyasseh
,
Ms. Margaux MacDonald
, and
Rui Xu
This study analyzes the drivers of the use of formal vs. informal financial services in emerging and developing countries using the 2017 Global FINDEX data. In particular, we investigate whether individuals’ choice of financial services correlates with macro-financial and macro-structural policies and conditions, in addition to individual and country characteristics. We start our analysis on middle and low-income countries, and then zoom in on sub-Saharan Africa, currently the region that most relies on informal financial services, and which has the largest uptake of mobile banking. We find robust evidence of an association between macroprudential policies and individuals’ choice of financial access after controlling for personal and country-level characteristics. In particular, macroprudential policies aimed at controlling credit supply seem to be associated with greater resort to informal financial services compared with formal, bank-based access. This highlights the importance for central bankers and financial sector regulators to consider the potential spillovers of monetary policy and financial stability measures on financial inclusion.
Keywords:
WP; informal financial services; IMF staff; low income; asset ratio; SSA sample; loan restriction; Financial inclusion; Mobile banking; Macroprudential policy; Macroprudential policy instruments; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global; formal financial services; financial service access; SSA population
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
United Republic of Tanzania: Selected Issues-Macrofinancial Issues
International Monetary Fund. African Dept.
This Selected Issues paper analyzes the financial sector in Tanzania. The Tanzanian financial system has a number of characteristics commonly seen in other low-income countries. The system is relatively small, dominated by banks, and has not been particularly inclusive. Costs related to basic financial services have come down. However, in other areas, progress remains limited. Firms’ access to credit remains a problem, access to the financial infrastructure continues to lag, and market development remains at a low level. The banking system overall is well-capitalized and reasonably profitable, but there is considerable variation among bank categories.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; excess reserves; interest rate; transmission mechanism; Community bank; deposits-to-GDP ratio; mobile money; market participant; reserve money target; Mobile banking; Financial sector development; Commercial banks; Credit; Global