Journal of Development Research

Effect of Digital Financial Sustainability and Institutional Quality on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Countries

Jude O. Dike¹, Richardson Kojo Edeme¹, Innocent Onyekezini¹ and Timothy Ideh¹

First Published 14 Jul 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/22297561251348717

Article Information

Corresponding Author:

Richardson Kojo Edeme, Department of Economics, Dennis Osadebay University, Asaba, Delta State 320001, Nigeria.
Email: richardson.edeme@dou.edu.ng

¹Department of Economics, Dennis Osadebay University, Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed.

Abstract

The research examined the impact of digital financial sustainability and institutional quality on economic growth. The research is founded on 26 chosen Sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations, and the data available span 1993–2023. The generalised linear model estimation technique was used. The results show that private sector credit and access to credit to the private sector positively and significantly affect growth in SSA nations. Broad money supply has a positive yet not significant impact on economic growth. Automated teller machine (ATM) penetration level increase and an increase in the account holder population have a positive impact on economic growth, while high dissemination of bank deposit and lending rate has a negative impact on economic growth. It has been found by this study that digital financial sustainability has not played a significant role in economic growth in SSA nations. However, the results of the interactive effect of digital financial sustainability on both political stability and government effectiveness have a positive effect on economic growth in SSA countries. The article suggests institutional quality improvement in the dimension of government effectiveness and political stability and improved access to credit facilities for the achievement of sustainable economic growth in SSA countries.

Keywords

Digital financial sustainability, economic growth, institutional quality, Sub-Saharan African countries

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Appendix: Data Sources.

List of countries included in the study:

Angola, Cameroon, Comoros, Botswana, Uganda, Cape Verde, Egypt, Zimbabwe, Congo Rep, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Malawi, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Namibia, Eswatini, Seychelles, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia.