African Indigenous Financial Institutions - The Case of Congo and Liberia

This book examines the impact of political conflict on microfinance engagement to put forth a theory of sparse network traps. It leverages a natural experiment to distinguish between the effects of conflict on determinants of microfinance efficiency and impact, and includes qualitative evidence from 235 interviews from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. Through a combination of regression analyses and panel data modelling with fixed effects, the project indicates that conflict has a stronger effect on the nature of demand for credit and savings services than it has on the actual performance of financial institutions. This work will interest scholars, researchers and graduate students in the fields of African politics, conflict studies, and development finance.

Julia Smith-Omomo is an independent researcher in Washington DC, USA. Previously, she was Field Operations Director for Mavuno, an agricultural development NGO in the DRC. She has also been a subcontractor for the United States Department of Agriculture, a visiting student researcher at Princeton University, and a program officer with the International Organization for Migration's Mission in Iraq.