AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SINAPI ABA MICROFINANCE ON THE LIVELIHOOD OF RURAL WOMEN: THE CASE OF THE EAST GONJA DISTRICT OF THE NORTHERN REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

Microfinance is currently being promoted as a key development strategy for promoting poverty reduction and empowerment of women economically. This is because of its potential to effectively address poverty by granting financial services to households who are not served by the formal banking sector. The thesis‟ central focus is to examine the effectiveness of Sinapi Aba microfinance on the socio economic livelihood of the rural women in East Gonja District of the Northern Region of Ghana. The work provides valuable insights into microfinance in a developing economy context. The study was guided by the philosophical ideas underlying the sustainable livelihood approach and the theoretical framework was based on the agent theory. It used the mixed method research design to carry out its scientific investigation and employed multi – stage sampling technique to select 470 respondent. The overall results suggest that loan beneficiary enterprises have expanded while their socio-economic status improved while non- loan beneficiary enterprises and their socio-economic status have declined. This was based on the inquiry into the socio-economic living conditions of women loan beneficiary of Sinapi Aba microfinance and non loan beneficiary. It is however recommended that, future research must focus on a deeper understanding of the sensitivity of the service users and amplify their concerns and appreciation is required. Poor people are usually of the impression that interventions are doing them favour so they seldom complain about the interventions and therefore studies that pick up the faintest of murmurings of service users are required to make interventions suitable for service users.