Many African countries have experienced episodes of weak growth since 1970 through the 2000s. A fundamental intermediation gap in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the extremely limited financing for medium to long term lending facilities to promote growth. Thus, given the importance of financial development on economic growth, this study investigates the impact of financial development on economic growth in SSA, which is sub-divided into low-, middle-and upper-income groupings to ascertain whether differences in income levels across countries affect the relative impact of finance on growth. The study adopts the dynamic and static panel data model to analyse 30 SSA countries using annual data over the 1985-2015 period. The findings indicate that financial depth and financial intermediation reduce per capita income growth in low-and middle-income countries. However, it increases growth in upper-income and the overall sample of SSA countries. Credit supply positively impacts growth in lowincome countries but exerts a significantly negative impact on growth in middle-income and the overall sample of SSA countries. Financial liberalisation promotes growth in upper-income and the overall SSA. However, it reduces growth in low-and middle-income countries. Financial development and financial † Late Dr. Mohamed Kargbo who has died of illness. In the past, he served as the Deputy Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone. He obtained a doctorate from Dalian University of Technology 4 years ago.

Slow growth in the banking sector has been the case in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the 1970s and 1990s. This situation is the case for Yemen, the banking sector is dominated by public sector banks, which are characterized by government intervention in credit allocations, losses and liquidity problems and non-performing loans. We investigate empirically the determinants of credit risk and its implication on bank performance in Yemen from 1998-2013 using panel data. The study shows that non-performing loans negatively affect profitability. In general all the six banks are profitable with minimal average Return on Assets (ROA) of 0.79% with an average of 17.2% volume of non-performing loans. The result also shows that Credit risk management and its effect on Banks performance are similar across banks (cross-section invariant) in Yemen. There is evidence of causal relationship between credit risk and banks performance in Yemen. This study contributes to current literature by providing an econometric understanding of relationship in credit risk and its implication on bank performance for the MENA countries. This understanding is important for academics, policy makers and development organizations in shaping the future banking and financial sector infrastructure and hence economic growth.

Weak growth episode has been the case in many African countries since 1970 up to 2000s. One fundamental intermediation gap in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region is the extremely limited financing for medium to long term lending facilities to promote growth. This situation is also the case for the West Africa (WA) region. The financial sector in the WA region is faced with problems of non-performing loans, weak credit evaluation mechanism, and high intermediation cost. Given the importance of financial development on economic growth, this study therefore, investigates the impact of financial intermediation on economic growth in WA countries. The study adopts panel data framework from 1985 to 2013. The findings of the study among others indicate that interest rate spread and inflation are high, as shown by the result of the summary statistics. In terms of the dynamic panel growth regression, broad money (M2) and the level of financial intermediation (M3) impact positively on growth in the region. Credit supply, inflation, and interest rate spread impact negatively on growth in the West Africa Region. The findings of this study are relevant to policy makers in formulating appropriate growth policies that can enhance sound and stable financial intermediation. These findings also are of significance to development organizations that are assisting with the growth process of African countries in shaping the future financial sector infrastructure and hence economic growth in the entire West Africa region and global.

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