IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v11y2022i9p402-d907149.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 and Microcredit: Dissecting an NGO’s Training, Financial Support, and Women Empowerment Programmes

Author

Listed:
  • Senyo Dotsey

    (Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, 20122 Milano, Italy)

Abstract

This paper reports the findings from a microcredit (financial inclusion) scheme that has been operated by a non-governmental organization since 2012 in a local community in Ghana, and sustained through the COVID-19 pandemic. It first examines microfinance, women’s empowerment and third-sector organizational dynamics. It then provides an overview of microfinance in Ghana within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by dissecting the organization’s microcredit, training and women’s empowerment programmes. The following part documents the findings, with brief concluding thoughts and policy implications appearing in the last section. It is argued here that financial schemes, particularly those operated by third-sector organizations, can play a significant role in helping women in particular to deal with the secondary effects of COVID-19 by providing improved non-financial services and easy access to microfinance at low, sustainable interest rates. These findings have implications for policy formulation and sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Senyo Dotsey, 2022. "COVID-19 and Microcredit: Dissecting an NGO’s Training, Financial Support, and Women Empowerment Programmes," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:9:p:402-:d:907149
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/9/402/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/9/402/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barnett, Barry J. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Skees, Jerry R., 2008. "Poverty Traps and Index-Based Risk Transfer Products," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 1766-1785, October.
    2. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Klapper, Leora, 2012. "Measuring financial inclusion : the Global Findex Database," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6025, The World Bank.
    3. Carlos Serrano-Cinca & Begoña Gutiérrez-Nieto & Beatriz Cuéllar Fernández & Yolanda Fuertes-Callén, 2013. "Poverty penalty and microfinance," Working Papers CEB 13-029, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prina, Silvia, 2015. "Banking the poor via savings accounts: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 16-31.
    2. Michaud, Amanda & Rothert, Jacek, 2018. "Redistributive fiscal policies and business cycles in emerging economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 123-133.
    3. N'dri, Lasme Mathieu & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2020. "Financial inclusion, mobile money, and individual welfare: The case of Burkina Faso," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    4. Ngasuko, Tri Achya, 2018. "Peningkatan Keuangan Inklusif Melalui Program Keluarga Harapan [Increasing Financial Inclusion Through Indonesian Conditional Cash Transfer Programme (Program Keluarga Harapan)]," MPRA Paper 98335, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Nanda, Kajole, 2019. "Dynamics between Bank-led Financial Inclusion and Economic Growth in Emerging Economies: The Case of India," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 95-121.
    6. Bishu, Kinfe & O'Reilly, Seamus & Lahiff, Edward & Steiner, Bodo, 2016. "Cattle farmers’ perceptions of risk and risk management strategies," MPRA Paper 74954, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. International Monetary Fund, 2014. "Burundi: Staff Report for the 2014 Article IV Consultation, Fifth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Extended Credit Facility and Request for Modification of Performance Criteria," IMF Staff Country Reports 2014/293, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 84-96.
    9. Quentin Stoeffler & Michael Carter & Catherine Guirkinger & Wouter Gelade, 2022. "The Spillover Impact of Index Insurance on Agricultural Investment by Cotton Farmers in Burkina Faso," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 36(1), pages 114-140.
    10. Richard M. Kiai & Stephen I. Ng’ang’a & David N. Kiragu & Josphat K. Kinyanjui, 2016. "The Effect of Business Environment on Investment among Financially Included Youth in Kenya," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 109-121, October.
    11. Mobarak, A. Mushfiq & Rosenzweig, Mark R., 2012. "Selling formal Insurance to the Informally Insured," Center Discussion Papers 121671, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    12. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2022. "The of role economic growth in modulating mobile connectivity dynamics for financial inclusion in developing countries," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 22/013, African Governance and Development Institute..
    13. Hongyu Wang & Xiaolei Wang & Apurbo Sarkar & Lu Qian, 2021. "Evaluating the Impacts of Smallholder Farmer’s Participation in Modern Agricultural Value Chain Tactics for Facilitating Poverty Alleviation—A Case Study of Kiwifruit Industry in Shaanxi, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-19, May.
    14. Suárez, Sandra L., 2016. "Poor people׳s money: The politics of mobile money in Mexico and Kenya," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 945-955.
    15. Christian Hott & Judith Regner, 2023. "Weather extremes, agriculture and the value of weather index insurance," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 48(2), pages 230-259, September.
    16. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    17. Xuanming Ji & Kun Wang & He Xu & Muchen Li, 2021. "Has Digital Financial Inclusion Narrowed the Urban-Rural Income Gap: The Role of Entrepreneurship in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Shih-Chieh Liao & Shih-Chieh Chang & Tsung-Chi Cheng, 2021. "Managing the Volatility Risk of Renewable Energy: Index Insurance for Offshore Wind Farms in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-27, August.
    19. Peter J. Morgan & Victor Pontines, 2018. "Financial Stability And Financial Inclusion: The Case Of Sme Lending," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 63(01), pages 111-124, March.
    20. Karthik Balasubramanian & David F. Drake, 2015. "Service Quality, Inventory and Competition: An Empirical Analysis of Mobile Money Agents in Africa," Harvard Business School Working Papers 15-059, Harvard Business School, revised Oct 2015.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:9:p:402-:d:907149. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.