Borrower’s perception on the profitability of solidarity microcredits from microfinance sector: an experience based on Cameroonian women’s groups microentrepreneurs

Ntieche Adamou and Fabrice Nzepang

Journal of Economic Studies, 2025, vol. 53, issue 6, 1118-1132

Abstract: PurposeThe present study examines the perception of women microentrepreneur borrowers of the profitability of solidarity microcredit on their income-generating activities in Cameroon and the factors that can influence it.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis employed in this study is content analysis based on semi-directive interviews with the 20 presidents of women’s microentrepreneur groups and a multinomial logit model based on data collected from 1,805 female microentrepreneurs.FindingsThe primary findings delineate three distinct levels of profitability: profitability in the absence of constraints, profitability under constrained conditions, and profitability that is non-existent. A range of factors have been identified as contributors to the profitability of solidarity microcredit. These include the size of the loan, autonomy, the level of interest rates, monitoring and support for borrowers, know-how via educational level, capacity building through decision-making and the power to act. Moreover, econometric analysis demonstrates that profitability is influenced by a variety of factors, including loan size, level of education, autonomy and commercial activity. However, it is imperative to examine more closely the deleterious repercussions of monitoring microfinance institutions, since previous work has established the primordial importance of monitoring and support in the field of microfinance.Practical implicationsThe study posits an augmentation in the provision of solidarity loans, whilst concomitantly calling upon microfinance institutions to place greater emphasis on factors such as the sector of activity, decision-making power and monitoring of borrowers.Originality/valueThe particularity of this study lies in the fact that it examines the perception that borrowers of solidarity microcredit have of their profitability and not that of the lender.

Keywords: Profitability; Borrowers; Women’s microentrepreneurs; Microfinance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/jes/article/53/6/1118/1304 ... the-profitability-of (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/jes/article-pdf/53/6/1118/ ... s-03-2025-0181en.pdf (application/pdf)

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:eme:jespps:jes-03-2025-0181

DOI: 10.1108/JES-03-2025-0181

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Studies is currently edited by Prof Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee

More articles in Journal of Economic Studies from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().