Contemporary Issues in Development Finance

University of Ghana Business School Ghana

Introduction/Subject Overview or Course Description

Development finance plays an important role in expanding capital availability to finance economic growth and development and these include first, minimising the imperfections in financial markets and institutions in order to improve on the level of efficiency and second, establishing alternative financial institutions or development finance institutions to provide direct capital in the market. This course focuses on both forms of interventions. Topics to be covered in this course include introduction to development finance, overview of the domestic and global financial systems, finance, economic growth and development, microfinance and development, private capital flows and growth, remittances and development, foreign aid and development, sovereign wealth management, sovereign debt management, Fintech, financial inclusion and economic growth, financing sustainable development, infrastructure financing and economic development, and development finance and private sector development.

Course Objective/Goals:

The objective of the course is to equip students to be able to demonstrate the necessary financial knowledge, tools and techniques necessary for the application of finance for development. Students will demonstrate skills needed to support the implementation of development programmes. They will also be able to understand the applications of development finance as practiced in development finance institutions, economics/finance clusters of governments and other development finance related institutions.    

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students would be able to:

  • Appreciate the main concepts and analytical skills on development finance in developing and emerging market economies;
  • Understand how the financial system can facilitate the process of development.
  • Gain insights into the contemporary issues related to development finance at the macro, sectoral and enterprise levels;
  • Develop analytical skills for the design, implementation, and evaluation of specific problems of development finance.

Course Delivery 

The methods to be employed in this course will include: lectures, discussions and group work.

Faculty: Dr. Josh Abor

Course Date & Time

Mondays and Tuesdays, 2 - 4 p.m. (GMT)