All over the world, poor people are routinely excluded from the formal finance system, ranging from full exclusion in developing countries, to partial exclusion even in developed countries. This fact contributes to making poverty a major development challenge, with one often touted solution being that of providing access to micro-loans. Research has continued to report mixed findings on the effects of microfinance factors on poverty alleviation. However, the increased involvement of women entrepreneurs in the major markets in Nasarawa State, Nigeria, in the activities of microfinance banks, NGOs, associations, cooperatives, rotating savings groups, self-help groups, and savings mobilisation groups (or adashi) suggests that further investigations on the relationship between microfinance factors and poverty alleviation should be conducted.
That is the aim of this study, which was carried out to identify and assess the relationship between microcredit, and self-employment, education, training and skills acquisition, and economic empowerment in a Nigerian context. It begins by contextualising the needs and challenges of women entrepreneurs, and outlining the microfinance environment. Next, the methodology of the study is explained, which includes the adoption of a survey-based research design, a systematic sampling technique to select the elements that completed the research questionnaire, and a regression statistical method, employed to analyse the data collected from the 343 selected respondents of women entrepreneurs.
The null hypotheses tested were that micro-credit: has no significant effect on the self-employment of women entrepreneurs; is not positively related to the education, training and skills acquisition of women entrepreneurs; and has no significant positive effect on the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs. Through literature review, the authors define and discuss the nature of micro-credit, and how it relates to women entrepreneurs, poverty and poverty alleviation, self-employment, and education, training and skills, and economic empowerment.