The Effect of Microfinance on Poverty Alleviation

The main objective of the study was to examine the role of microfinancing in poverty alleviation using Opportunity International Saving and Loan Limited and Sinapi Aba Saving and Loans as case studies. Specifically, the objectives of this study are:

1. To examine the product and services of microfinance which help in poverty alleviation.
2. To examine loan accessibility arrangements of microfinance.
3. To evaluate the extent to which microfinance institutions have assisted in poverty alleviation.
4. To examine the challenges facing microfinance institutions.

The study adopted the exploratory research design. The target population of this study comprised all the workers of Opportunity International Saving and Loan Limited (Head office) and Sinapi Aba Saving and Loans (Head office) in the Ashanti Region totaling 75 persons. Out of the entire employee population of 75, 63 employees were sampled out for the study according to Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sampling size determination table. Hence our sample size for the employees is 63. In relation with the customers of the savings and loans company, one hundred (100) customers of both companies were selected. A simple random sampling technique was employed to select the 63 employees out of all the employees. On the other hand, in relation to the customers of the savings and loans company, a combination of convenience sampling and the judgment sampling was adopted for this study. Questionnaires were used as the data collection instrument. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to process the quantitative data.