Non-bank financial companies are shaking up some African economies while barely making a dent in others, according to new research from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) presented at a Kenya workshop, based on a COMESA announcement.
Central bank officials from 13 countries studied what happens when institutions like insurance companies, pension funds, and investment firms hit trouble. The results were all over the place. Some countries saw their financial systems wobble badly. Others barely noticed. The workshop ran September 8-9, 2025, with delegates trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
These non-bank institutions aren’t your typical banks but they handle loads of money anyway. Think insurance companies, pension funds, and microfinance groups. They’ve gotten huge in many African countries, sometimes bigger than regular banks. But they don’t follow the same rules that banks do, which creates problems.
When these companies ran into trouble, some countries got hit hard while others shrugged it off. The research didn’t name names about which countries fell where, but clearly some places are more vulnerable than others. Central bank folks want tougher rules, better oversight, and regular checkups to spot problems early. They also think different financial watchdogs need to talk to each other more instead of working in silos.
The meeting included people from Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Eswatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe who also planned what to do next year.
