Dave Johnson argues that instances of fraud have increased since the liberalisation of the economies examined in his research. However the wider social harm of consuming and using fraudulent goods falls unevenly on the poor yet these consequences seems low on the official anti-fraud agenda....
The adoption of technologies in the Nigerian banking sector is helping the ‘’unbanked’’ and ‘’underbanked’’ to enter online banking users. Yet, as Nataliya Mykhalchenko writes, electronic fraud related to e-payments, online banking and card use, for example, is rising across the country. ...
In a new book on the neoliberal moral economy in Africa, Jörg Wiegratz writes how there has been a high intensity of moral-economic interference of foreign, especially Western actors to promote a particular capitalist moral order in contemporary African societies. In this blog-post introducing his...
In the second part of her investigation into Angola's oil giant Sonangol, Liliane Mouan returns to the ongoing restructuring and asks whether these reforms will deliver greater openness and transformation. As she concludes, 'Angola’s rulers are well aware that this international legitimacy requires a restructuring...
In the first of a two-part blog post Liliane Mouan looks to the restructuring of the Angolan oil sector and state oil company Sonangol. The country retains the image of an oil kleptocracy, with the fate of Sonangol tied to a political dynasty. This blog...
Neoliberal policies, reforms, ideas, social relations and practices have engendered a type of socio-cultural change across Africa (and the world) which is facilitating widespread fraud. In a new volume just published, editors Jörg Wiegratz and David Whyte and their contributing scholars explore the moral worlds...
David Johnson explains that impressive growth rates and the reduction of poverty in Ghana hide a rampant inequality that pervades the country. Although Ghana's progress in poverty reduction has to be acknowledged, income inequality has significantly increased, which seems to be fueling fraud....
In this far-ranging analysis of recent events in South Africa, Elizabeth Cobbett argues that a ‘soft’ coup is effectively taking place. Cobbett argues that an ‘oligarchical coup’ is being carried out by wealthy families and senior ANC figures, with Zuma at the heart. The Gupta...
Milford Bateman argues that apartheid was replaced with a venal market-driven economic system which has at its heart the supposedly poverty-reducing and empowering concept of microcredit. Yet microcredit has been an unmitigated disaster for South Africa's poor....
Koert Lindijer writes how the gap between rich and poor is enormous in Kenya. From the perspective of poor inhabitants - the majority - Kenya’s elite is rich thanks to massive corruption. Lindijer writes about the depth and extent of this corruption and the valiant...