An analysis of the relationship between bank efficiency and access to banking services in South Africa
- Authors: Maredza, Andrew
- Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , Doctor of Administration (in Public Administration)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/910 , vital:26508
- Description: The primary objective of this study is to investigate the nature of the relationship between bank efficiency gains and access to banking services in South Africa. The importance of making such an enquiry arises from the fact that various studies have identified access to financial services as an important vehicle for lifting the poor out of poverty. In particular, there is concern that banks` appetite for better scores on efficiency has the potential of reducing access to services for consumers particularly the low-income clients. The study attempted to answer two central research questions: Firstly, does the quest for banks to improve efficiency preclude access to banking services for some group of consumers? Secondly, do bank efficiency gains necessarily translate to improved accessibility to banking services? The researcher applied a two-stage methodology approach. In the first stage, the Hicks-Moorsteen aggregator functions were used to generate and decompose total factor productivity (TFP) into several efficiency measures for a panel of eight South African banks. First stage results revealed that the average banking sector total factor productivity efficiency (TFPE) was 59 percent implying that the observed TFP was 41 percent short of the maximum TFP possible using the available technology. A further comparison of performance revealed that large banks were better performing than small banks in terms of TFPE. Apart from estimating and decomposing TFP indices we needed to determine if there was a statistically significant change in the TFPE of South African banking system as a result of the global financial crisis. A general analysis of the generated scores showed that TFPE clearly decreased during 2008-2009, the period that coincided with the global financial crisis. We then used the Fixed Effects Model (FEM) in the second-stage analysis to examine the link between banking sector TFPE and access. The FEM was utilised to take account of bankspecific heterogeneity. The obtained results indicated existence of a positive and significant relationship between banking efficiency and access to banking services. This study suggests that banking sector efficiency plays a crucial role in promoting access to bank services in South Africa. We therefore underscore the need for all banks to attain and maintain high efficiency in order to augment government efforts towards improving accessibility for the unbanked South African people. We also found evidence similar to that reached by Kablan (2010) that an increase in the rural population is associated with a reduction in access to bank services. From this result, we speculated that banks are somewhat biased against providing their services to the general rural populace. Since the rural-population variable exerted the greatest marginal impact on access we suggested that perhaps investment in rural infrastructure would help broaden access and so improve financial inclusion on a larger scale. Finally we also investigated the link between banking sector efficiency and unemployment in South Africa. Of paramount importance in the second stage analysis was that we found a negative and significant association between banking sector efficiency and unemployment indicating that employment is influenced, inter alia, by the efficiency with which banks operate.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Perceptions on ante-mortem welfare, quantitation of pain and pregnancy biomarkers, muscular fibre architecture and quality of Dohne Merino offal
- Authors: Fayemi, Peter Olutope
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Merino sheep , Slaughtering and slaughter-houses -- By-products , Biochemical markers , Meat -- Quality , Consumers' preferences , Cooking (Variety meats) , Livestock -- Transportation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD (Animal Science)
- Identifier: vital:11824 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1007573 , Merino sheep , Slaughtering and slaughter-houses -- By-products , Biochemical markers , Meat -- Quality , Consumers' preferences , Cooking (Variety meats) , Livestock -- Transportation
- Description: Sheep farming is practiced extensively in South Africa for its significant contributions to the livestock, wool and meat industries. The sheep farming sector in the country has approximately 13,800 farmers with commercial and communal sheep farmers making up 58 percent and 42 percent of the entire work force (Directorate of Agricultural Information Services, 2008). An estimate of 28.8 million sheep and flock size ranging between ≤ 50 and ≥ 1800 exist in various South African provinces. Although the national herd size is unevenly distributed provincially most of the herds are found in the Eastern Cape (30 percent) followed by the Northern Cape (25 percent), Free State (20 percent) and the Western Cape (11 percent) respectively (Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2011). Over twenty indigenous and locally developed sheep breeds are managed where about 69 percent of the land area is available for their grazing nation-wide (Campher et al., 1998; Palmer and Ainslie, 2006). Common among the indigenous breeds are the Afrikaner, Blackhead Persian, Blackhead Speckled Persian, Blinkhaar Ronderib, Damara, Karakul, Namaqua Afrikaner, Pedi, Redhead Persian, Redhead Speckled, Swazi and Zulu. The locally developed breeds include Dorper, Van Rooy and Merinos. The local breeds developed from Merinos consist of the Afrino, Dormer, Dohne Merino and South African mutton Merino (Hammond, 2000; Pranisha, 2004; Hinton, 2006; Sorma et al., 2012). All these sheep breeds are best suited for providing by-products such as wool, meat, hide, milk or a combination of products (Dave and Meadowcroft, 1996; Jensen, 2009). The indigenous and locally developed sheep were bred to meet the growing demand for its by-products (Peters et al., 2010). Expectedly, sheep farmers therefore, make use of the products from these sheep as a means of livelihood and sustenance of a viable local society (Cloete and Olivier, 2010).
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- Date Issued: 2013