THE IMPACTS OF MICROFINANCE ON LIVELIHOODS OF WOMEN – A STUDY OF LAPO MICROFINANCE WOMEN CLIENTS IN MINNA, NIGER STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Lift above Poverty Organization (LAPO) is one amongst many Microfinance banks in Minna licensed by the central Bank of Nigeria, saddled with the responsibility of providing credit facilities to the active poor and low income women with the expectation of boosting the livelihoods of the beneficiaries. The research focused on measuring the impact of Microfinance credits on the livelihoods of LAPO women Clients in Minna Niger State. The study adopted a quasi-experimental strategy creating two independent groups known as treatment and control group to investigate the causal relationship between Microfinance as (Independent Variable) and Livelihoods as (Dependent variable).The difference between the two groups created is that one uses microfinance(Treatment group) and the other is without Microfinance (Control group). Quantitative methodology was adopted leading to dissemination and return of 120 closed ended questionnaires which represented 100% response rate. The respondents were examined based on their physical, human and financial assets in the periods before and after Microfinance intervention. The research findings were analyzed through the use of an independent T-test of SPSS package to investigate a comparison between the two groups. The P-value of > than 0.05 level of no significant differences between the two groups showed that they were comparable. The research showed a slight improvement on some of the selected household assets of the respondents in treatment group .However, the improvement was too minimal to have triggered positive impact of microfinance on the beneficiaries. Interestingly, it was discovered that additional income earned by the clients was what contributed to why their assets survived over the years. It was concluded that LAPO microfinance has no impact on the livelihood of the women.