IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/54894.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retail Rural Finance In South Africa: From Policies To Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Coetzee, Gerhard K.

Abstract

In South Africa a recent government study laid the foundations for improving access to financial services for rural people. More is however needed than simply stating the policies. It is argued that policies do not differentiate target groups adequately. This can result in inefficient implementation of policies. The concept of a broad range of institutional possibilities to improve access to financial services, none of which specifically provides a conclusive model, is considered to be realistic. The idea is to muster this range of possible forms into a co-ordinated effort to increase access to financial services for rural people in all rural areas. This paper emphasises the reality of the situation when choosing policy directions. NGOs, commercial banks and the Post Bank do not hold the primary key to improving access to financial services in rural areas in South Africa. Several studies discussed the broad range of possible institutional forms in the rural areas of South Africa. The role of decentralised financial systems has not been the focus point of any of these studies. It is argued that fertile ground exists in South Africa for decentralised financial systems to address access problems at the local level. Decentralised systems also cannot be the solution to all intermediation problems. A multipronged approach is proposed, harnessing all institutional forms into a comprehensive strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Coetzee, Gerhard K., 1998. "Retail Rural Finance In South Africa: From Policies To Practice," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 37(4), pages 1-13, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54894
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.54894
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/54894/files/22%20Coetzee%20-%20December%201998.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.54894?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prabhu Ghate & Evelinda Ballon & Virginia Manalo, 1996. "Poverty alleviation and enterprise development: The need for a differentiated approach," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(2), pages 163-178.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Douglas Woodward & Robert Rolfe & André Ligthelm & Paulo Guimarães, 2011. "The Viability Of Informal Microenterprise In South Africa," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(01), pages 65-86.
    2. Kirsten, Johann F. & van Zyl, Johan, 1998. "Defining Small-Scale Farmers In The South African Context," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 37(4), pages 1-12, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claudia María Vargas, 2000. "Community development and micro-enterprises: fostering sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(1), pages 11-26.
    2. P. V. Viswanath, 2017. "Microcredit and Survival Microenterprises: The Role of Market Structure," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Lynn Bennett & Carlos E. Cuevas, 1996. "Sustainable banking with the poor," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(2), pages 145-152.
    4. Shaw, Judith, 2004. "Microenterprise Occupation and Poverty Reduction in Microfinance Programs: Evidence from Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1247-1264, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54894. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.