The Impact of Micro-Finance on Women Groups in Katsina-Ala, Benue State, Nigeria

Linda Kwon-Ndung (PhD) and Felix Tersoo Gbaeren
Additional contact information
Linda Kwon-Ndung (PhD): Department of Political Science, Federal University of Lafia, Nigeria
Felix Tersoo Gbaeren: Department of Political Science, College of Education Katsina-Ala. Benue State, Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2021, vol. 5, issue 11, 472-481

Abstract: Microfinance is hailed as a tool for poverty alleviation and is one of the major strategies to achieve poverty reduction especially among women. This is because access to financial services assist poor households in meeting their basic financial needs, protects them against risks, and reduces their vulnerability to shocks, by building assets. Prof Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh developed a framework for Microfinance approach to community development with a pilot group lending scheme for the landless people and this later became the Grameen Bank which currently serves millions of clients out of which about 94% of them are women. This approach has become a model for many countries. The Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) views microfinance as a mechanism for providing financial services to the poor who are traditionally not served by the conventional financial institutions. This research examined the impact of micro finance on women in Katsina Ala Local Government Area of Benue state. This research was based on a primary source of data obtained from a survey using structured questionnaires administered to 200 women that were randomly selected through their various associations. An empirical review was done to establish the potency of microfinance in other societies. Secondary source of data obtained from previous similar studies was also used to strengthen the study. Descriptive statistics ofsimple percentages was adopted as the method of analysis to establish how micro finance impacted the socio-economic wellbeing of the women. The study revealed that women who had access to microfinance from Lift Above Poverty organization and Better Life microfinance institutions esperienced significant growth in their businesses and improvements in their socio-economic wellbeing as compared to those that had no access. The study also established that the repayment process appeared too demanding for the women. The paper recommends that the repayment process should be made less demanding for the women by spreading the payments into a longer duration so as to reduce the pressure of repayment and massive sensitization should be carried out for more women to know of the availability and gains of the facility and its benefits to overcoming financial insecurity

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ ... issue-11/472-481.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/ ... benue-state-nigeria/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:11:p:472-481

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science is currently edited by Dr. Nidhi Malhan

More articles in International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science from International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dr. Pawan Verma ().