Roles of credit institutions in the improvement of rural livelihood and poverty alleviation in Mangu local government area, Plateau State

Successive Nigerian governments have made great efforts toward the improvement of rural welfare through poverty alleviation. These efforts translated into the establishment of several rural development programmes including Agricultural Credit Guaranteed Scheme (ACGS) and Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NARCDB). This study is an assessment of the roles of these financial institutions in improving the lives of the rural people of Mangu Local Government in Plateau state in terms of provision of credit to enable adoption of technologies. The specific objectives were to identify the technologies available to the people, examine farmers’ accessibility to the credit facilities and determine the extent to which accessibility of credit facilities has helped adoption of innovation in the area. A total of 106 respondents were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. Data were analysed using percentages and frequency distribution. The results of the analysis show that 87.5% of the respondents agreed that very few of the technologies available were adopted because of financial constraints. Also, 80.0% indicated that it was quite difficult to access the credit due delay in document processing (41.96%, unattainable collaterals (27.68% and other corrupt practices 25%). He financial institutions helped the very few to adopt technologies that were capital intensive by providing the required credit. It was concluded based on the findings that the establishment of credit institutions has not helped the Mangu people much, because of the inaccessibility of the facilities. Consequently, it is recommended that farmers in this area should reduce their dependence on the formal financial/credit institutions by adopting technologies that are less capital intensive or alternatively form their own traditional credit systems. Technology development for farmers should take into account the social and economic capacity of the people to have the desired impact on the people.