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The economic importance of palm oil produced by its producers in food requirement, income generation, production and consumption has led to a significant increase in its demand over the years. Thus, this chapter evaluates the effects of palm oil price fluctuations on the welfare of palm oil producers in Nigeria based on annual time series data (1980–2018). In achieving its objectives, the study employs Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL). The result establishes the presence of a long-run relationship in the welfare of palm oil producers. The long-run estimates show that palm oil prices had a positive but insignificant relationship with the welfare of palm oil producers. In the short-run estimates, palm oil price and the exchange rate had adverse and significant effects on the welfare of palm oil producers, while the inflation rate positively and significantly influenced welfare. Therefore, the welfare programme should adopt policies that will stabilise the palm oil price and other foodstuffs to increase the standard of living of palm oil producers and raise their literacy levels.

This study aims to critically analyze the fundamentals of the current major Islamic Finance (IF) instruments and contracts in light of both the foundations of IF and the concept of substance over form in the accounting conceptual framework. Such analysis is believed to be necessarily for the IF institutions to provide better and more genuine service to their customers.

To achieve the study purpose, the methodology is based on theoretical analysis and analytical review of the major IF contracts.

The IF industry needs to focus on the economic substance of the products offered to their clients. In developing and promoting their products, IF institutions need to focus on the ultimate and substantial goals of Islamic Sharia rather than re-packaging existing conventional products under different arrangements and formats to make them appear as Sharia-compliant to their clients. Both religious scholars and IF professionals need to engage in much deeper analysis and understanding of the substantial design of IF instruments and the concept of usury in modern economy.

This paper does not intend to develop a comprehensive framework for the design of IF instruments to meet the economic substance and ultimate goals of IF principles or measure such economic substance. However, that is definitely a subject for further research.

By applying concepts like substance over form from other business fields such as the accounting theoretical framework to the IF instruments and contracts, we should gain better understanding and practical implications of these instruments and figure out ways to improve their design to be more consistent with and better serve the ultimate goals of the Islamic Sharia.

This study aims to examine consumer perception of introduction of Islamic banking (IB) in Ghana, which is a new and emerging form of banking in many non-Islamic countries.

Empirical field data were collected from a sample of 975 respondents using self-administered structured questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was conducted using SPSS version 16.

Muslim respondents have significantly positive perceptions of IB compared to non-Muslims and have stronger intentions to adopt IB in Ghana than non-Muslims. Non-Muslims have high perceived benefit of IB. Non-Muslim respondents do not perceive potential threat of violence associated with the introduction of IB in Ghana. Although non-Muslims perceive IB that would make Islam popular, they do not perceive it as a means of Islamizing bank customers. Relatively, non-Muslims appear to have low knowledge of IB, unfavourable attitude towards IB, are reluctant to comply with Sharia law and consequently have weaker intentions to adopt IB.

This study was limited to descriptive analysis and to only Ghana. Future research should quantitatively model IB adoption and switching factors using samples from other developing countries.

IB institutions could focus on attracting a niche of Muslim consumers at its initial stages. Moreover, to facilitate the introduction of IB, the Bank of Ghana and other relevant stakeholders, in addition to establishing effective governance structures, must promote consumer education to enhance consumer knowledge of IB and correct misconceptions about IB among consumers, particularly non-Muslim customers.

One unique contribution of this study is that it provides an initial empirical exploration of consumers’ attitude and perceptions of IB in Ghana, which is an under-researched area.

Understanding which market to invest in for a well-diversified portfolio is fundamental in economies that are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in exchange rates. Extant literature that has considered phenomenon hardly juxtapose the markets. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of exchange rate volatility on the Stock and Real Estate market of South Africa. The essence is to determine whether the fluctuations in the exchange rate influence the markets prices differently.

The Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity [GARCH (1.1)] model was used in establishing the effect of exchange rate volatility on both markets. This study used monthly South African data between 2000 and 2020.

The results of this study showed that increased exchange rate volatility increases stock market volatility but decreases real-estate market volatility, both of which revealed weak influences from the exchange rates volatility.

This study has implication for policy in using the exchange rate as a policy tool to attract foreign portfolio investment. The weak volatility transmission from the exchange rate market to the stock and real estate market indicates that there is prospect for foreign investors to diversify their investments in these two markets.

This study investigated which of the assets market, stock or housing market do better in volatile exchange rate conditions in South Africa.

This study aims to examine factors affecting the adoption of Islamic banking (IB), which is an innovative and emerging form of banking, in a non-Islamic Sub-Saharan African (SSA) country.

It used primary data collected from a cross-section of 975 respondents using self-administered structured questionnaire. Empirical data were analysed using SPSS version 16 and partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) for Muslim and non-Muslim groups.

Consumer attitude, readiness to comply with Sharia law, knowledge, perceived innovativeness and perceived benefits were critical determinants of bank customers’ intention to adopt IB in both Muslim and non-Muslim sub-groups. The least influential factors were perceived religion effect (PRE) and perceived threat of violence (PTV). PTV was not a significant factor to non-Muslims, but it was a significantly negative factor to Muslims’ intentions to adopt IB. PRE has a positive influence on Muslims’ intention to adopt IB, but it has a negative effective on non-Muslims’ adoption intentions.

This study is limited to only bank customers in Ghana. Moreover, service quality factors were not included in the research model because IB is yet to be given full-fledged operational license in Ghana. Future research should extend the study to other emerging countries to improve the generalizability of the findings.

Policymakers are encouraged to develop stakeholder-oriented strategies to promote effective consumer education in IB. Also, IB institution should endeavour to develop innovative financial products that are Sharia-compliant and economically beneficial to individual and business needs of bank customers. Moreover, policymakers and management of IB institutions should ensure effect governance structures to guide IB operations.

This study provides initial structural equation modelling of determinants of IB adoption in emerging countries and provides empirical evidence on the spread of IB in non-Islamic SSA, which is an under-researched area. It is the first study to empirically report on the influence of PTV, readiness to compliance Sharia law and perceived innovativeness of IB on intentions to adopt IB in non-Islamic SSA context.