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

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