This paper investigates the leading causes of nonperforming loans during the economic and banking crises that affected a large number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s. Empirical analysis shows a dramatic increase in these loans and extremely high credit risk, with significant differences between the CFA and non-CFA countries, and substantially higher...

On the surface, PADME (Projet d'Appui au Developpement des Micro-Entreprises) is one of the most profitable African micro-finance institutions (MFIs) that report to the bulletin. Although this profitability is partly due to low cost funds and under-investment in management and operating systems, in th...