Financial services are an essential element in powering entrepreneurial activity beyond resource extraction in Africa. This book examines the macro-trends and highlights inspiring success stories of entrepreneurial financial sector ventures that are making a lasting contribution to the economic development of various sub-Saharan African countries.

For millions of Africans, growth is yet to translate into jobs and better living conditions. Africa's largely commodity- driven growth has not been matched by the much needed structural change that can lead to economic transformation, employment, and reduced poverty. Market failures necessitate industrial policy interventions. Yet, in the absence of the right processes and institutions, good industrial policies will fail. Indeed, weak institutions and poor policy design have hindered industrial policy. This report gives a framework for getting the policy process right to foster industrialization. It uses 11 country case studies to assess the critical ingredients for spurring industrialization - innovative institutions, effective processes and flexible mechanisms - and structural transformation.

Economic growth rates among the developing countries have varied considerably. The external environment has had an adverse impact on growth, but domestic policies have been more important. Countries striving to adjust their economies have had considerable success reducing external imbalances but less success with internal balance. In the absence of large inflows of foreign capital, countries will need to rely on the mobilization of domestic financial resources. The structure of a country's financial system reflects its economic philosophy; the present financial structure of many developing countries reflects their approach to development in the 1960s and 1970s, an approach that emphasized government intervention in the economy. Today many countries are revising their approach to rely more heavily on the private sector. For the financial sector, this implies a smaller role for government in the allocation of credit, determination of interest rates, and the daily decisionmaking of financial intermediation. Relaxation of these controls calls for an effective system of prudent regulation and supervision. Hence while the objective is an open market, countries should not remove all capital controls until other economic and financial reforms are in place.