DOES MICROCREDIT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE ON BORROWERS’ BUSINESSES? EVIDENCES FROM A SURVEY OF WOMEN OWNED MICROENTERPRISES IN TANZANIA
Paul J. Salia
Institute of Accountancy Arusha, Tanzania
Jonathan S. Mbwambo
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to examine whether participation in microcredit has any effect on the performance of women owned microenterprises in Tanzania. To that end, the article utilized survey data collected by use of questionnaire from a total 217 borrowers and 183 non-borrowers in three major cities in Tanzania including Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza. The study found out that businesses of borrowers were performing significantly better than those of non-borrowers on total sales revenue and business net worth. Although mean net profit for borrowers was higher than non-borrowers, the difference was not statistically significant. The paper concludes that microcredit is a useful tool to alleviate poverty among women through income generation resulting from their involvement in microenterprise activities. It further calls for consorted efforts by responsible government agencies and commercial banks to scale up outreach of microcredit services to women through, among other initiatives, provision of financial and technical support to member-based savings and credit associations.
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