Africa's trade is impeded by poor infrastructure. Inadequate transport infrastructure raises costs analogous to trade barriers, while inadequate power discourages investment. Yet Africa's infrastructure needs greatly exceed its capacity to finance them. There is therefore a need, and an opportunity, for substantial foreign private finance. However, to date, while private finance routinely finan...

Almost every paper I have ever read on infrastructure finance focuses on the achievement of what market practitioners believe is the Holy Grail of infrastructure finance. As PwC (2013) has stated in a recent publication, ‘[a] logical infrastructure project debt market would use short-term bank debt markets e.g. construction finance, with refinancing into the long-term institutional markets as s...

Furniture manufacturing micro and small enterprises are confronted with several factors that affect their performance. Some enterprises fail to sustain, some others remain for long period of time without transforming, and most are producing similar and non-standard products. The main aim of this manuscript is on improving the performance and contribution of MSEs by analyzing impact of significa...

A prudential framework is an important element in facilitating the successful integration of Islamic financial services to the global financial system. In recognition of this need, various stakeholders decided to establish the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) to spearhead the development of a uniform set of prudential, supervisory and disclosure standards for the Islamic financial s...