Banks enter locations where local demand and infrastructure make financial intermediation profitable. We argue that Christian missions affected both margins, and thus the present-day geography of formal banking in <a href="https://absafricatv.com/unesco-mobilizes-west-africa-to-safeguard-and/” title=”UNESCO Mobilizes West Africa to Safeguard and”>Africa reflects the historical footprint left by Christian missionary expansion. We test this claim by matching 2,278 historical mission stations to about 26,600 enumeration area (EA)-round observations across Africa from Afrobarometer surveys. Comparing otherwise similar EAs within and outside a 25 km radius, we find that those within 25 km of a historical mission are about 10 percentage points more likely to host a bank facility today. The result survives extensive historical and geographic controls, tests for selection on unobservables, and the exclusion of EAs near pre-colonial urban centres. We find evidence consistent with both demand- and supply-side mechanisms: Mission proximity predicts higher educational attainment and household assets, lower reliance on subsistence agriculture, and greater local infrastructure, including post offices – the institutional precursor to formal banking. We find little evidence of Protestant superiority; both denominations appear to have generated lasting effects. Our findings suggest that Africa’s present-day geography of formal financial access reflects centuries-old institutional footprints of European Christian missions.
Abreham Adera is a research fellow at the University of Brescia
Roberto Melis is a PhD candidate at the University of Bergamo and the University of Agder.
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Institutions, leadership, and governance
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