Financial Inclusion And Inclusive Growth: Evidence From West And East African Countries

The near absence of inclusive development that has resulted in poverty, inequality and unemployment in the West and East African Regions has made it imperative to understand the sundry of financial inclusive facilities that has pave way and promote inclusive growth. The study empirically investigates the nexus between financial inclusion and inclusive growth from selected West and East African countries employing the non-stationary heterogeneous panel to account for non stationarity and heterogeneity. The study found out there was a short-run and long-run relationship between financial indicators and inclusive growth. Findings indicate that domestic savings and infrastructural development has a positive impact on inclusive growth but domestic credit by private sector and consumer prices on the other hand had a negative impact which could be attributed to high interest rate. Therefore, the study suggests that government policies such as favourable interest rate should be geared towards strengthening financial institutions and promotes the ease of accessibility of funds through less restrictive policies on financial institutions.