Reducing Poverty Through Microfinancing in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region of Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of micro finance in reducing poverty in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The hypothesis of the study was “micro loans when used on income generating activities will lead to poverty reduction.”The spreadsheet programme was used to do the analysis on reducing poverty through micro financing in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region of Ghana. The theoretical frame work was based on the Foster-Greer-Thorberke Class Index. The researcher also used “costs of basic needs” method to calculate head count poverty in order to compare consumption expenditure of MASLOC and Non MASLOC families. The study had a Crounbach reliability Coefficient of .95 after pilot test. Data were collected from MASLOC records as age, sex, business and household expenditure. The researcher also collected data from some 50 MASLOC applicants who received loans and 50 others who did not receive the loans in order to triangulate the data on household expenditure, number of individuals in household including other bio-data. It was found that poverty reduced slightly for MASLOC families than for Non MASLOC families. The researcher recommends that government, development partners and Non-governmental organizations must collaborate to increase micro loans to the people of Wa East District in Upper West Region of Ghana in particular and the productive poor in general.