The Impact of Micro Credit on Poverty Alleviation among Women Entrepreneurs in Ile – Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

The main objective of the sustainable Development Goals is to transform our world for the better. Central to this transformation is the issue of poverty eradication which is sine qua non to the achievement of other SDGs.  Poverty is unarguably, a hydra-headed disease which is ravaging the world like a plague.  However its prevalence in the developing countries, including Nigeria, is at intolerable level. A UNESCO Report on poverty index in Nigeria reveals that about 90 per cent of the country's population survive on less than two dollars per day, which means the majority of the country's population are wallowing in abject poverty. Among the corrosive effects of poverty in Nigeria are poor living standard, prevalence of preventable diseases, high mortality rate, and high crime rate among others. At the lowest rung of poverty ladder in the country are the women. Although, women are generally considered to be better in thrift and credit utilization in the informal sector, yet they are poorer than men, due to certain socio-economic barriers which, in most cases, exclude them from access to capital either to invest in or expand some economic activities. However, both the governmental and non-governmental agencies have increasingly been showing interest in micro-credit as an alternative means of alleviating poverty among the downtrodden. Hence, this study set out to examine the impact of micro credit on poverty reduction, using some women entrepreneurs at Ile-Ife as case study. The study discovered that, all things being equal, micro credit could be an effective strategy for poverty alleviation. The study observed some hindrances which may inhibit the achievement of this goal and made some recommendations in that regard. The study adopted a mixture of quantitative and qualitative method of data collection