From Indigenous Finance to Hybrid Financial Inclusion: Challenges, Contextual Conditions and Institutional Integration among Nuer Agro-Pastoralist Communities in South Sudan
Keywords:
indigenous financial systems; financial inclusion; hybrid finance; pastoralist livelihoods; conflict; social capital; South Sudan; GNN-HFIFAbstract
Financial inclusion scholarship has increasingly recognized the importance of informal and community-based financial arrangements, yet dominant policy approaches continue to privilege formal banking, digital finance, and regulated microfinance as the primary pathways to inclusion. This article examines the challenges and contextual conditions affecting indigenous financial systems among Nuer agro-pastoralist communities in Uror County, Jonglei State, South Sudan, and develops a contextually grounded framework for linking indigenous and formal financial institutions. The study used a concurrent mixed-methods design, combining 410 valid household questionnaires (94% response rate) with 30 key informant interviews, six focus group discussions, direct observation, and document review. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically and integrated through triangulation. The findings show that the indigenous financial system remains highly functional but is constrained by conflict and insecurity, migration, inflation, livestock loss, environmental vulnerability, gender inequality, weakening intergenerational participation, limited financial literacy, weak record-keeping and accountability, inadequate digital connectivity, and weak institutional linkages with formal finance. The composite mean for the challenges and limitations construct was 4.07 (SD = 1.12), while respondents strongly supported institutional integration, with a composite mean of 4.17 (SD = 1.04). Conflict and insecurity (M = 4.10), declining trust (M = 4.19), gender bias (M = 4.09), and livestock-related risk (M = 4.12) emerged as major constraints. At the same time, respondents endorsed national policy recognition (M = 4.20), capacity-building and training (M = 4.24), bank-community collaboration (M = 4.17), and protection of traditional practices (M = 4.19). Qualitative evidence further indicated that communities prefer a hybrid model that retains indigenous institutional primacy while selectively connecting these systems to formal finance, digital technology, government policy, and development support. The article proposes the GNN Hybrid Financial Integration Framework (GNN-HFIF), organized around Indigenous Institutional Primacy, Institutional Complementarity, and Contextual Sustainability. The study argues that sustainable financial inclusion in fragile pastoralist settings requires institutional bridging rather than institutional replacement.
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