The West African region, one of the largest urban agglomerations in Africa has over decades experienced rapid rate of urbanization. The urbanization processes have been associated with manifold environmental and socioeconomic challenges including inefficient urban infrastructure, unaffordable...

Purpose - This paper aims to empirically investigate the factors attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses secondary data from the World Bank and the Global State of Democracy Indices of 16 West African countries...

The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) spans over 6 000 km of coastline and 19 states. The region is rich in natural resources: it holds significant reserves of gas (2.7% of total world reserves) and oil (4.5%), as well as other valuable minerals including diamonds, tin, bauxite, manganese and cobalt. While...

The Gulf of Guinea (GoG) spans over 6 000 km of coastline and 19 states. The region is rich in natural resources: it holds significant reserves of gas (2.7% of total world reserves) and oil (4.5%), as well as other valuable minerals including diamonds, tin, bauxite, manganese and cobalt. While...

Although microenterprises are the most prevalent employer in Africa, boosting their productivity remains a development challenge. Theoretically, microenterprise business associations could foster technology, improve access to inputs, pool risk, ensure coordination, and facilitate credit for...

Most power utilities in West Africa are not financially sustainable. Several interrelated factors cause these performance issues, but dependence on liquid fuels, poor governance, insufficient use of information technology (IT), and weak balance sheets are particularly common and acute...

This paper is one of a series of three that aim to help West African utilities and governments and the development financiers that support them - better understand and respond to these issues. The focus in the papers is primarily on utilities with a distribution function (that is,...

Most power utilities in West Africa are not financially sustainable. Several interrelated factors cause these performance issues, but dependence on liquid fuels, poor governance, insufficient use of information technology (IT), and weak balance sheets are particularly common and acute...

This study used an emic approach to examine the dynamics of online romance fraud, focusing on the migration of offenders from Nigeria to Ghana. We collected data through qualitative methods, such as semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Ghanaian police officers and Nigerian law...

Africa is one of the fastest-growing crypto markets in the world, with its crypto transactions peaking at $20 billion per month in mid-2021, with Nigeria contributing to the world's third largest bitcoin-holding. Evidence continues to grow, showcasing criminals who seek to use cryptocurrencies...

This study explores the role of climate conditions in shaping return migration intentions among international migrants. Using original survey data of over 1,000 first-generation migrants from West Africa living in Germany, we correlate observational data on temperature increases in the...

The election of Bassirou Diomaye Faye as President of Senegal on March 24, 2024, after a turbulent electoral process, reflects the resilience of Senegal's democratic institutions. It provides an opportunity to strengthen transparent governance and combat inequality. It was the first time since...

Since the 1960s, both the regime of Reza Pahlavi (1941-1979) and, subsequently starting from 1979 the Islamic Republic of Iran, have intervened in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). While the Shah's policies were motivated by a virulent anti-communist stance, the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) pursued a...

Armed conflicts significantly affect the social and economic conditions of societies in turmoil, disrupting the normal functioning of local economies. This study seeks to delve into the repercussions of armed conflicts on the dynamics of local economies in Ségou and Mopti, Mali, since the...

The study analysed the macroeconomic developments in the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), focusing on macroeconomic imbalances for the period 2001-2022. The variables of interest in this study include inflation rate, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, current account balance,...

The traditional linear economic model, characterized by extraction, production, consumption, and waste disposal, has increasingly exposed its limitations, particularly in the depletion of natural resources and the acceleration of global warming, which are critical global issues. These challenges...

This paper analyzes the role of the nature of traded goods in the effect of the real exchange rate on the trade balance in West African Economy and Monetary Union countries. Empirically, the estimation of the parameters of a distributed lag autoregressive model using the technique of dynamic...

This policy brief focuses on the digital gender gap in Africa, a critical issue highlighted by The World Bank. We look into why men's and women's internet use differ significantly, due to factors such as affordability, limited content availability and digital literacy gaps that exacerbate the...

West Africa has been struggling with a lack of proper transport infrastructure for a long time. This has been hindering economic growth and trade competitiveness in the region. To achieve the goal of an integrated Africa and support continental trade, it is essential to address this gap. The...

France's reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine was initially conciliatory. However, the current French President' statements, Macron, gradually changed, suggesting a potential shift in France's stance. The French president recently suggested troops could be sent to Ukraine to fight the...

This paper uses a structural approach to analyse economic convergence within the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries. This Regional Economic Community has recorded several postponements of the convergence horizon defined by the Economic Commission. However, it is a...

Our study examines the integration of food markets in West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and assesses the role of bilateral trade. In this study, we hypothesize that each country has a market. We adopted the framework borrowed from Ravallion using a dynamic panel model. The...

This brief summarizes insights from a seminar event on disability-inclusive social protec-tion systems in West Africa, held in Cape Coast and Accra, Ghana. Guided by a com-munity-based inclusive development framework, it suggests goals and objectives for people-centered, community-driven, and...

In this study, we investigate the contribution of trade openness to the structural change process in ECOWAS countries. Our findings suggest that the production structural change process is significantly and positively affected by the extent of trade openness. Higher openness levels are...

The present study examined the relationship between finance, government revenue, institutional quality and sustainable energy supply in West Africa countries over annual frequency period from 2012 to 2020. To achieve the outlined nexus between study variables, the present study leverages on a...

On 16 September 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - all three states led by military regimes - decided to establish a new regional organisation, the Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des Etats du Sahel - AES). This move was prompted by the worsening of the crisis within the Economic Community...

Context: Faced with deep challenges with access to formal education, many West African countries are increasingly taking steps to reform their informal apprenticeship systems to make them a quality skills development alternative for their teeming youth. A review of the literature shows that...

Armed conflicts significantly affect the social and economic conditions of societies in turmoil, disrupting the normal functioning of local economies. This study seeks to delve into the repercussions of armed conflicts on the dynamics of local economies in Ségou and Mopti, Mali, since the...

The WAEMU has seen strong growth and rising living standards over the past decade. Economic growth averaged 5.4 percent in 2013-2019 and 5.8 percent in 2021-2023. Policy efforts from regional and national authorities have cushioned the impact of several external and internal shocks, prompting a...

This study provides country-specific empirical evidence on the optimal inflation-growth threshold in the WAMZ over the period 1996-2021. Although there is large empirical literature on this subject, however, previous studies on the WAMZ economies generally focused on exogenous approaches of...

The West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) was established by France to counteract the dominance of Anglophone countries in West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana, over Francophone West Africa. Francophonie in French West Africa is mainly driven by a power elite, the 'Pré...

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Turkey considered only North Africa a substantial part of the Ottoman Empire and neglected sub-Saharan Africa unless vital interests were at stake. However, the apathy of successive Turkish governments changed with the 1998 "Africa Action Plan". Since then, the...