Explore publications.

In the current dynamic world, those with no or little access to key financial products and services suffer a great deal of disservice. This study examines the effect of remittance channels (commercial banks and alternative sources) have on financial inclusion and then check the moderating effect of money remittance regulation on the relationship between the remittance channels and financial inclusion in Kenya. It uses the World Bank and Central Bank of Kenya’s dataset on remittances and financial inclusion covering the period from 2009 to 2018. We estimate our model using the Ordinary Least Square assumptions to find the association. We find that remittances from alternative channels other than commercial banks influence financial inclusion in Kenya. We further notice that the money remittance regulations have no moderating effect on the relationship between remittance channels and financial inclusion in Kenya. Our results suggest that commercial banks are not able to appropriately sell their products and services to remittance-receiving households while fintech and other internet remitting service providers seem to roll on products and services that enhance the use of savings and credit facilities. We suggest that more avenues and policies should be enacted to foster the use of alternative sources while improving structures within commercial banks to empower financial inclusion in Kenya

The objective of this research is centered on determining different microinsurance dimensions towards promoting the sustainability of the marginalized. This central objective leads to the assumption that microinsurance is a good tool to supplement the lack of or the unavailability of social protection programs intended for those who are socially excluded. Over the years, there have been increased calls among governments all over the world to end poverty.  The call puts to order the use of all available means to attain the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  As a background, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted in 2015 by all United Nations Member States.  It encompasses 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is an urgent call for action for all developed and developing countries to form a global partnership in promoting peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. The very heart of this framework recognizes that ending poverty and other deprivations must have effective and efficient strategies. The research made use of purely quantitative methods to achieve its objectives. There were 600 questionnaires distributed all over the Philippines but only 422 questionnaires were retrieved. The indicators of microinsurance were factor analyzed using the principal axis method with varimax rotation to determine the underlying dimensions. Since its introduction to the market, microinsurance has been a tool that enables low-income households to become resilient against adversities. In fact, it has been found in various literature that microinsurance has functioned as a social protection mechanism when social services are inadequate or not available. It can be further concluded that microinsurance with its unprecedented growth is eyed as a primary contributor to achieving the majority of the SDG 2030. This monumental role of microinsurance calls for the support of various sectors.  As indicated in the results, financial literacy has to increase among the marginalized to embrace the concept of insurance.  The government likewise has to intervene in promoting microinsurance particularly in areas that are neglected by social services for whatever reasons.

This study aim is to explore owners of small enterprises' appreciation of bank’s role in developing their businesses and the challenges that come along in accessing banking services in the context of Sefwi-Bekwai which is a rural community. Questionnaires were used to solicit information from the owners while descriptive statistics aided the data analysis. The study found that the main source of start-up capital is the owner’s funds whiles saving was recorded as the key benefit of banking. It further revealed that the high-interest rate charged was a barrier in accessing loans and the effect of bank relations was sound financial management for the SME’s operations. The paper suggests the need for small enterprise owners in the rural communities to form an association for their benefit in terms of taking advantage of group lending and demanding support and relief from relevant authorities. Improved institutional support would also give small enterprises better access to the information they need for financing and growth.

Amid the increasingly competitive competition among banking institutions today, the Village Credit Institution ‘Lembaga Perkreditan Desa’ (LPD) belonging to the Pakraman village in Bali is getting stronger. This scientific work discusses LPD as the economic and socio-cultural capital of Balinese society. As a result of qualitative research, the data obtained through literature review, observation and in-depth interviews with nine informants, namely the administrators of the Empowering Institute of LPD of Bali Province and managers LPD Kesiman, Denpasar; LPD Seminyak, Kuta-Badung; and LPD Beraban Kediri. The data analysis was done by a descriptive interpretation by using management theory and Bourdeau social practice theory. The results of the research indicate that as economic capital, LPD proved able to build entrepreneurship and empower local villagers of pakraman. As a social capital, LPD has its own value structure, has a social network and gained the trust of its customers. Furthermore, as a cultural capital, LPD is able to strengthen the tradition of local pakraman villagers and become part of the cultural pillars of Balinese society. It is expected that LPD strengthening will continue to be done according to the needs and development of Balinese people

This article considers the influence of macro-economic factors as integrated factors in financial sustainability of Informal Finance Groups. Informal Finance Groups (IFGs) have become critical in poverty eradication around the world in enhancing access to finance. Despite acknowledgement of this fact, IFGs have been faced with financial constraints as a result of micro factors that affect them. This puts the financial sustainability of the IFGs at risk.  In this study, financial instability in informal finance groups is caused by these factors: loan pricing and loan repayment period. This study required to examine the connection between macro-economic factors and financial sustainability of informal finance groups in Kiharu Constituency in Murang’a County. Both primary and secondary data were collected. Findings indicate that there is relationship between macro-economic factors and financial sustainability of informal finance groups. The R value of 0.238 portrayed a positive linear relationship between the loan pricing practices and financial sustainability of Informal Finance Groups, and the R value of 0.354 portrayed a positive linear relationship between the loan repayment period and financial sustainability of Informal Finance Groups. Therefore the study concluded that the macro-economic factors have an influence on financial sustainability of informal finance groups. The study recommends that the IFGs should devise a standard criteria for optimal pricing of loans to avoid charging exorbitant rates which worsen the poverty situation of the rural residents. Further, the IFGs should also set up loan monitoring systems in place to avoid diversion and defaults.  

This paper attempts to find out why higher institution students in Duhok are not opening or having bank accounts. With the use of interview process and questionnaire, 100 students were selected from Newroz University, Dohok Polytechnic University and Dohok private technical institute in Duhok city.  It was found from this study that most of these students’ approximately 90 students of them have no bank accounts while only 10 of them have bank accounts. Moreover, this research found that trust on banks, security, bad banks infrastructure, lack of money, costs of opening bank accounts, access to bank accounts and unemployment are the main reasons for low banking interest among students in Duhok city. However, the highest reason is lack of trust on Duhok banks and lack of money due to high unemployment rate. It is suggested that banks in Duhok city should encourage students to open bank accounts by advertising the importance of banking services and offer student loans. Also, Duhok government should award scholarship to student to ease the pressure from the unemployment menace in the country. Keywords: Un-bank, Bank trust, Poverty, Banking access

The purpose of this study is "Designing an excellent service model on Population and Civil Registration Service in the city of Metro ". The conclusions obtained from this study are (1) Problems in excellent service at Population and Civil Registration Service in the city of Metro based on their nature are divided into two types, which is uncontrolled (missed) and which is controlled (difficult). Uncontrolled problems are problems that should not need to exist, but they appear as an unavoidable problem whereas problems that are controlled are problems whose level of difficulty can be controlled. (2). The focus of service in population administration services in an institutional model emphasizes speed and convenience and does not pay attention to the simplicity of requirements and so to improve its quality it is necessary to pay attention to safety factors. (3) There are still many brokers in the services of the city of Metro Population and Civil Registration Service due to lack of supervision from the relevant agencies, not yet clear the application of Procedure Service Standards as well as the lack of socialization to the public about the service rates and service procedures.

<p><em>The study examines the perceptions of the services of the micro finance Institutions by the women service users, and how the services of micro Institutions affect businesses of the beneficiaries of the micro credit loans. The research design for the study was the survey method. The instruments of data collection were structured questionnaires and in-depth interview. A total of 450 questionnaires were administered to the female participants, and senior management personnel of the micro credit institutions were interviewed. The cluster and simple random sampling were used to select the participants for the study. The leaders of registered unions were the informants.  The result reveals that the poor services and attitude of officials of micro finance institutions and other problems like the regressive tax regimes, harsh economic climate and patriarchy are negatively affecting the business ventures of the loan beneficiaries and by implication the goals of poverty reduction via micro credit scheme . The women beneficiaries are groaning under the burden of loan repayment and meeting other obligations as mothers and wives. This study is applicable in the context of social policy development at this time when social services delivery is not only poor but at dismal level. The need for gender sensitive and social development becomes imperative. It is critical to social work practice in the context of advocacy, empowerment programs, facilitating and initiating service delivery and Community organizing by social workers that will enhance the war against Poverty and other social impediments against women empowerment in Nigeria.</em></p>

The majority of income earners of small-scale informal economic sectors in most developing regions abstain from mainstream formal banking systems. These income earners rather “bank” informally. Mainstream formal banking institutions also argue that low income earners are “unbankable” and posed business risk. However, emerging literature posits that low income earners would instead provide a profitable formal niche market. Trends with regard adoption and non-adoption of mainstream formal banking systems amongst small income groups were mixed. This paper investigates such patterns in South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The results of this paper revealed that the informal cross-border traders who trade between Zambia and South Africa were good adopters of mainstream formal banking. The results however found a sharp contrast in Zambia. In Nyanga, Zimbabwe, the results of this paper revealed that there were a few respondents who had adopted mainstream formal banking while 47.2% of communal cattle farmers in South Africa had adopted mainstream formal banking systems through savings against 52.8% who were left out. Adoption or non-adoption of mainstream formal banking systems patterns vary from region to region, and sector to sector even where income earners were almost equals in terms of household income earnings. Mobile banking and low transaction costs might provide motivation for small-scale income earners to adopt mainstream formal banking.  

The present study seeks to examine the role of microfinance and its impact on economic and social empowerment of women. The study used multi-stage stratified proportionate random sampling technique in the selection of the representative district, mandal/taluka, villages and households. Empirically acclaimed logistic regression model has been employed for analyzing significant impact of plausible socio-economic factors on women empowerment. The study found that the socio-economic indicators have undergone significant changes. It also emerged that there has been an increase in women participation in the household decision making process. The study suggests that the government should prepare suitable plans and programmes for the social and economic empowerment of women. The study also suggests that policy measures such as increase in frequency of SHG meeting, SHG training programme, increase in loan amount and ensuring effective utilization of the loan, may be the useful initiatives to enhance women empowerment, income and employment opportunities.

The study examines the perceptions of the services of the micro finance Institutions by the women service users, and how the services of micro Institutions affect businesses of the beneficiaries of the micro credit loans. The research design for the study was the survey method. The instruments of data collection were structured questionnaires and in-depth interview. A total of 450 questionnaires were administered to the female participants, and senior management personnel of the micro credit institutions were interviewed. The cluster and simple random sampling were used to select the participants for the study. The leaders of registered unions were the informants.  The result reveals that the poor services and attitude of officials of micro finance institutions and other problems like the regressive tax regimes, harsh economic climate and patriarchy are negatively affecting the business ventures of the loan beneficiaries and by implication the goals of poverty reduction via micro credit scheme . The women beneficiaries are groaning under the burden of loan repayment and meeting other obligations as mothers and wives. This study is applicable in the context of social policy development at this time when social services delivery is not only poor but at dismal level. The need for gender sensitive and social development becomes imperative. It is critical to social work practice in the context of advocacy, empowerment programs, facilitating and initiating service delivery and Community organizing by social workers that will enhance the war against Poverty and other social impediments against women empowerment in Nigeria.

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the factors having the most influence on the alleviation of poverty amongst the households adopting microfinance in Zambia. Ninety nine (n=99) respondents were randomly and purposively selected from amongst 340 microfinance adopters of the so-called Micro Bankers Trust programme operating a microfinance business in the Makululu Compound of Kabwe, Zambia. Socio-demographic primary data were collected through face-to-face interviews based on a semi-structured questionnaire instrument. The data were entered into an excel spreadsheet for analysis. The descriptive data were thereafter exported and fitted to an empirical model. The descriptive results revealed that the majority of the respondents were married, unemployed, fairly educated younger women from larger-sized poor households who drew their household income mainly from microfinance activities. The majority of the respondents thought microfinance had improved their well-being in some crucial areas. The results of the empirical model found that some respondents were indeed alleviated from poverty through microfinance. Conclusion drawn in this paper is that microfinance does alleviate poverty of the poor. 

Many credit schemes in Tanzania channel their funds to women with the objective of alleviating poverty among them. Despite this, majority of women in the country continue to wallow in poverty. The present research was carried out among the Foundation for International Community Assistance’s women credit beneficiaries in Mwanza. The study set out to address the following objectives: to analyze the influence of the husband’s cooperation, relevant training and interest rate on poverty alleviation among women credit beneficiaries in Tanzania taking Foundation for International Community Assistance in Mwanza as a case study. Using simple regression model, results showed that cooperation from the husband as well as relevant training influences poverty alleviation among women credit beneficiaries in Tanzania by 56 and 36 percent respectively. But interest rate was found to have no significant influence at all. The paper recommends that seminars be conducted so that husbands can be taught the importance of cooperating with their wives. Above all giving training to women credit beneficiaries will go a long way in sharpening their business skills. Future researchers should research on laziness and complacency among women credit beneficiaries and the influence on poverty.  

This study is a discussion on the ‘Non-Governmental Organization-Microfinance Institution Partnership Model’ and ‘Securitization Model’ used by Indian microfinance institutions to achieve cost efficiency. These two models are effective strategies devised and used by efficient and sustainable Indian MFIs to reduce their operating cost and financing cost. Achieving such cost efficiency is crucial for microfinance institutions to attain operational self-sustainability without levying high interest rates. Using interview method the study elicits information on these innovative strategies and recommends them to be worthy of emulation for other microfinance institutions operating in the Indian microfinance industry.

Less attention has been given to well-being and other household characteristics that influence clients’ access to micro-credit among women households especially. The paper investigates the determinants of access to credit by 320 women entrepreneurs in the Mfantsiman Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana. Data for the study was collected in June-July 2010 from six communities including Mankessim, Saltpond, Anomabu, Biriwa and Yamoransa. Sturctured questionnaires were used to collect the data from women entrepreneurs. The results of the study indicate that clients’ well-being influences access to credit amount. Clients who have been in business for long time are likely to access larger loan amounts. Marital status and education do not influence access to credit. Among the recommendations are that microfinance should not only target clients with high well-being scores but those with low well-being scores since the original aim of microfinance is to lift the poor out of poverty. It is important to give credit to aged business owners instead of young ones. Giving credit to married women because their husbands could serve as guarantors does not matter much but rather women who do not have husbands also need to benefit from micro-credit.