An Assessment of Nigeria Agricultural and Rural Development Bank’s Micro-Finance Services on Poverty Alleviation in Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria

This work attempts to examine the relationship between the application of microfinance services, particularly microcredit, and the alleviation of poverty. The relationship between education and environment as they affects poverty is also examined. The research examined the practice of micro finance services in other parts of the world and highlighted how Nigeria can learn from the experiences and practice of microfinance in other countries of the world. The research employed the use of both primary and secondary data to achieve his objective. In addition to the main method of data analysis used, which is the ordinary least squares method, the research also used the method of eliciting responses from respondents through the use of questionnaires. The exercise revealed a negative relationship between the application of microfinance and poverty alleviation. It also revealed that the more education an individual has, the more likely he is able to walk his way out of poverty. Similarly, it was shown that there is no significant difference between urban poverty and rural poverty. This is to say that irrespective of the environment that an individual resides, if the individual is exposed to the causes of poverty, he becomes poor. It was recommended that NACRDB should be strengthened and fully repositioned to be able to deliver microfinance services to the target population. Microfinance development fund should be established to encourage the provision of wholesale fund for microfinance and other development institution. Ways of making the mobilization and purveying of microfinance services more viable was also suggested.