AXA Professor Victor Murinde chaired the BIEA Annual Lecture at the British Academy

20 November 2019

Professor Victor Murinde, Director of the Centre for Global Finance and Head of School of Finance and Management chaired the BIEA Annual Lecture 2019 at the British Academy. The lecture focused on building prosperity for Africa. The event featured three outstanding lectures.

The first lecture, on “New Approaches to Prosperity for Africa: an introduction to PROCOL Kenya” was delivered by Professor Henrietta Moore, BIEA President, Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity, IGP, University College London. This brilliant lecture challenged our current thinking on economic prosperity in Africa and went further to propose a new Prosperity Index using data from rural Kenya.

The second lecture, on “Data Driven Innovation in Kenya” was delivered by Professor Jaqueline McGlade, Professor of Resilience and Sustainable Development, IGP, University College London. This lecture provided exceptional insight on innovations for sustainable development in Africa.

The final lecture, on “Farming for the Future” was delivered by Dr Matt Davies, Associate Professor, IGP, University College London. The brilliant ideas covered in the lecture ranged from archaeology to modern methods of rural farming, taking examples from Kenya and a list of East African countries.

The event also featured very lively Question & Answer session on issues ranging from data protection issues to climate risk, firm innovation and the future of Africa.

CGF Annual Conference 2019 - FinTech, Financial Inclusion and Sustainable Growth

The SOAS Centre for Global Finance Annual Conference 2019 was held here at SOAS on the theme, “FinTech, financial inclusion and sustainable growth”, on 6th - 7th September 2019.

The aim of the conference was to bring together key stakeholders who have important roles to play in shaping new research findings, paving new policy directions, and initiating innovative practices in the areas of FinTech, financial inclusion and sustainable economic development. The conference featured new research findings, contained in slightly over 30 research papers, over two days (6-7 September).

Officiating at the opening of the conference, the Director of SOAS, Baroness Valerie Amos said “This CGF Annual Conference 2019 is testimony to the pursuit of the SOAS Vision and Strategy 2016-2020, to ‘shape scholarship across the humanities and social sciences, and promote social benefit worldwide’.  She added, in her conclusion, “I wish you a very fruitful conference and very productive networking so that you can continue to extend the frontiers of our knowledge and translate the knowledge into meaningful impact, by supporting public policies and private sector practices for financial inclusion and better livelihoods in Africa, Asia and globally. Through the Centre for Global Finance, SOAS will continue to count on you - all our friends and networks”.

The conference keynote was delivered by Dr Patrick Njoroge, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya - a leading policy maker, who is at the forefront of FinTech and financial inclusion as well as the diffusion of this financial innovation to the rest of the world. The Governor commented, “financial technologies are revolutionising the role of financial institutions, the behaviour of financial markets and the scope of financial instruments in developing as well as developed economies. They are transforming our daily economic activity such as sending and receiving money, paying bills, reshaping business models, facilitating financial inclusion and driving regulatory changes”.

The conference attracted distinguished scholars from universities in the UK, the USA, the Netherlands, Canada, Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, China, Kenya, China, India, France, Germany, and Switzerland - to mention just a sample of countries, demonstrating the global networks that are involved in path-breaking research to sustain the global competitiveness of the SOAS Centre for Global Finance.  Equally important was the presence of practitioners from international organisations, such as the Department for International Development, Economic and Social Research Council, Bank for International Settlement, UN Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank, diplomatic missions based here in London, private sector companies, financial institutions, NGOs, media and think tanks. Leading researchers, who are part of the Centre for Global Finance network, included Victor Murinde (SOAS), Robert Lensink (University of Groningen), Issouf Soumare (Laval University, Canada), Christopher Green (Loughborough), Oliver Morrissey (University of Nottingham), Leonce Ndikumana (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Yaw Nyarko (New York University), Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University), Isaac Otchere (Carleton University, Canada), Mohammed Amidu (University of Ghana), Judith Tyson (ODI), Stephany Griffith-Jones (Columbia University and University of Sussex), Ye Bai (Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China), plus private sector practitioners (e.g. Tandhi, CEO of Tandi Fashion, London). The SOAS Pro-Director (International), Professor Stephen Hopgood, met the Chief Guest and other participants in the morning before the conference opening; the SOAS Pro-Director (Research), Professor Andrea Cornwall interacted with the Chief Guest and other conference participants at the conference dinner.

The papers included in the conference programme were funded by many research grants, in particular: the AXA Research Fund who are supporting the research programme on “Mega Trends in Global Finance”, under the endowment of the AXA Chair in Global Finance at SOAS;  DFID and ESRC, who under the DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme Call 3 are supporting the research on “Delivering Inclusive Financial Development and Growth”, and the ESRC and NSFC who are supporting the research project on “Developing financial systems to support sustainable growth in China – The role of innovation, diversity and financial regulation”.

The Director of SOAS Centre for Global Finance, Professor Victor Murinde, thanked Dr Meng Xie who led the team that organised the conference; he then stated in his closing remarks, “It has been two days of great fellowship among researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Indeed, this conference has exemplified the drive by the SOAS Centre for Global Finance to engage in research that resonates with policy and practice”.

The Role of Savings and Investments in Promoting Economic Growth

The Institute of Certified Investment and Financial Analysts (ICIFA) held its 2nd Annual Conference in March 27th-29th, 2019 at Mombasa, Kenya, under the theme ‘Promoting a High Savings and Investment Culture in Kenya and the Region’.  The conference brought together professional investment and financial analysts serving the financial services industry, which gave the participants a great opportunity to network with key stakeholders and experts in the financial markets from the region. The focus area for the conference was primarily to address the role of the investment professional in boosting the investment culture in Kenya as a key to economic growth.

Professor Murinde presented a keynote speech on the topic ‘The Role of Savings and Investments in Promoting Economic Growth’. The presentation outlined the global trends in savings, investment, equity and bonds, and particularly shed light on the trends of savings, investment and economic growth in Africa. Professor Murinde highlighted the main barriers of doing business in Africa and recommended directions of boosting investment and economic growth respectively.

Professor Murinde pointed out that ‘investment influences the rate of economic growth because it is a component of aggregate demand and influences the productive capacity of the economy. Investment in capital goods (e.g. factories, machines), human capital (e.g. education) and financial capital (e.g. funds necessary to sustain and grow a business) are fundamental elements to be considered.’

Professor Murinde also used evidence gathered from field experiments (RCT) to explain the importance of tackling main constrains imposed upon investment, which include ‘low level of social capital and trust in financial institutions, regulatory barriers, barriers to opening account, and lack of financial literacy’.

‘Innovative financial products are critical for the future of the financial services industry.’ said Professor Murinde.

Here are the five ‘take-away’ points: ‘Saving for financing investment is critical for economic growth; investment analysts and financial analysts here at ICIFA play an important role in reducing opacity in investments decisions; flow of funds framework is an effective tool for identifying where to invest and what to invest; strategies for promoting domestic investment should not be limited to stimulating domestic savings but must also address the non-financial obstacles; fintech is the way forward to provide innovative finance solutions for SMEs and start-ups (entrepreneurship) well beyond the first three years of life – the notorious ‘Valley of Death’, concluded Professor Murinde.