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Informal borrowing sources and uses: insights from the North West Region, Cameroon

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  • Nathanael Ojong

Abstract

This article seeks to analyse the informal borrowing sources of the poor as well as the purposes for borrowing. The obsession on characterising the poor as financially excluded fails to grasp their active financial lives. This article emphasises how relations of credit/debt are rooted in complex social and cultural forces. It is precisely because of the social embeddedness of credit that family finance, though interest-free, is not a first resort. Similarly, credit in kind from shopkeepers, though critical to consumption smoothing, is detested by some people. Also, it is argued that the involvement of the traditional leader in repayment enforcement in informal financial groups challenges the economistic narrative that attempts to separate credit from cultural norms.

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  • Nathanael Ojong, 2019. "Informal borrowing sources and uses: insights from the North West Region, Cameroon," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(9), pages 1730-1749, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:40:y:2019:i:9:p:1730-1749
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2018.1460201
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    Cited by:

    1. Khoa A. Trinh & Nathan Berg & Arlene Garces‐Ozanne & Stephen Knowles, 2022. "Why Did They Not Borrow? Debt‐Averse Farmers In Rural Vietnam," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 60(4), pages 228-260, December.
    2. Simba, Amon & Martins Ogundana, Oyedele & Braune, Eric & Dana, Léo–Paul, 2023. "Community financing in entrepreneurship: A focus on women entrepreneurs in the developing world," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

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