Impact of Non-Financial Services of Microfinance Banks (MFBs) on the Performance of Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper evaluated the impact of non-financial services of MFBs on the performance of women micro entrepreneurs in Kaduna state, Nigeria. The paper made use of a sample of 384 women entrepreneurs who had accessed microfinance facilities out of the 24 Microfinance Banks (MFBs) with in the period under study and who fit into the petty trader’s categorization by the Kaduna state Poverty Alleviation Unit in Nigeria. With the use of cross sectional survey design, the study collected and utilized primary quantitative data by use of structured questionnaires and analyzed by the use of ordered logit regression analysis. The study found training and network meetings to be the only non-financial services of MFBs that significantly influenced the performance of the women entrepreneurs. It was therefore concluded that the non-financial services offered by the MFBs have not impacted on the performance of the women traders, except in the aspect of training and network meetings. In line with these findings, the study recommended that the MFBs should be empowered by the government to provide entrepreneurship training from time to time to their clients and organize meetings that will pull people in the same line of business to enhance performance.

Keywords: Microfinance Banks, non-financial services, performance, entrepreneurs, training, network meetings