A Cointegrating Linkage of Financial Inclusion, Institutional Quality and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Countries

Abstract

This study investigates the cointegrating relationships among financial inclusion, institutional quality, and economic growth in 20 Sub-Saharan African nations from 2008 to 2024. Employing the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator in an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) panel, the analysis showed a significant and favourable long-term association between economic growth, financial inclusion and institutional quality. In particular, regardless of the proxy for economic growth, the long-term association between financial inclusion and economic growth is positive and statistically significant. Similarly, institutional quality demonstrates a favourable and significant long-run linkage to economic growth, suggesting that improvements in institutional frameworks are related to sustained economic expansion. In contrast, short-run dynamics differs. There is a short-term correlation between institutional quality and economic growth but not between financial inclusion and economic growth. These findings show the importance of institutional quality as a catalyst for economic growth in the region. Consequently, the study recommends that governments in Sub-Saharan Africa should prioritise setting up strong institutions and policies to foster financial inclusion, which has a correlation with sustainable economic growth. This is crucial for both overall economic development and the creation of job opportunities.