The study investigated the effect of financial liberalization on economic growth in selected Middle East/North Africa (MENA) countries and Sub-Sahara Africa countries using data obtained mainly from the World Bank data catalog. The panel unit root test developed by Im, Pesaran and Shin (IPS) was used to explore the stochastic properties of the data before estimating the models using Pooled Mean Group/Autoregressive Distributed Lag estimation procedure for dynamic panel analysis and found that financial liberalization has had positive and significant influence on economic growth in MENA countries while financial liberalization had a positive but not significant influence on economic growth in SSA countries. Thus, the study recommends the pursuit of rational financial liberalization policies in the MENA countries and SSA countries as well as encouraging policies of financial inclusion in both sub-regions so as to continually enjoy the beneficial effect of financial liberalization in their economies.

Keywords : Financial Liberalization, Economic Growth, Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Sahara Africa, Pooled Mean Group/ Autoregressive Distributed Lag.