Florence Dafe

Dr Florence Dafe

Small Group Project 2025-26

Digitalisation and the changing power and purpose of banks: Banks’ control of digital infrastructure in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria

How has the political power of banks changed in the digital era? Since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009, non-bank institutions employing digital technology for the provision of financial services, commonly referred to as FinTechs, have grown considerably. When FinTechs began to enter segments such as payments, which hitherto were part of banks’ core business operations, they seemed to have the potential to outcompete and reduce the reliance on banks. Recent research, however, suggests that the rise of FinTechs has not ushered in the end of the era of banking. Moreover, a closer look at the roles that banks in different economies play reveals that even in the context of the macro-trend of digitalisation, there is considerable variation across countries in the positions banks occupy in digitalising economies and thus in their societal importance.

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Areas of interest

Political Economy Comparative Politics International Finance Governance Development International Development Financial Economics Africa

Cohort

FG11

Biography

Florence Dafe is a political economist at the Chair of European and Global Governance of the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Her research and teaching cover a number of themes related to international political economy and comparative political economy, with a particular focus on global financial governance. Florence’s research interests revolve around finance and development, especially the domestic and external political constraints that governments in developing countries face in governing their financial sectors. The question which drives her research is how much policy space governments in developing countries have in governing their financial sectors in a context of globalisation and financialisation. Florence has written on the factors which shape the structural power of finance in developing countries, the strategies developing countries pursue in navigating global banking standards, the spread of financial inclusion policies, the political economy of central banking in developing countries, and the development of local currency bond markets in Africa. Prior to joining the Chair of European and Global Governance, Florence was a Fellow in International Political Economy at the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and lecturer in International Political Economy at City, University of London. She is also an associate researcher at the German Development Institute. Florence holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the LSE and a PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex. Since 1 July 2021 she is also a Honarary Research Fellow at the Centre for Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick.

Biographical details correct as of 24.06.25