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Microcredit: Empowerment and Disempowerment
of Rural Women in Ghana
JOHN KUUMUORI GANLE
a
, KWADWO AFRIYIE
b
and ALEXANDER YAO SEGBEFIA
b,*
a
University of Oxford, UK
b
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Summary. —Microcredit for women is a commonly used strategy for women empowerment. Based on longitudinal qualitative research
with rural women who are involved in an NGO-run micro-lending program in Ghana, this paper examines the empowerment effects of
rural women’s access to microcredit.
We found that some women are empowered as a result of their access to credit; some have little control over the use of loans and are not
better off; and some are subjected to harassment and are worse off due to their inability to repay loans in time. The implications of these
findings for policy and practice are discussed.
Ó2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Key words — microcredit, women, empowerment, disempowerment, Ghana
1. INTRODUCTION
Limited savings and lack of access to credit make it difficult
for many poor people, particularly women in low-income
countries, to become self-employed and to undertake produc-
tive employment and income-generating ventures (Khandker,
1998). Microcredit programs for women have thus emerged
and are currently being promoted as both a solution to
women’s limited access to credit and a strategy for poverty
reduction and women empowerment (Hashemi, Schuler, &
Riley, 1996).
Based on data generated from original longitudinal qualita-
tive research we conducted in five rural communities in Ghana
with women who are involved in a popular local microenter-
prise development program run by a big international non-
governmental organization (NGO), this paper investigates
how rural women’s access to microcredit empowers them or
otherwise. Findings show that some women have become
more empowered, while others have also become disempow-
ered as a result of accessing the loan.
2. BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH
This paper forms part of a larger, original research that
sought to explore the relationship between microcredit and
the socio-economic empowerment of women in rural Ghana.
Microcredit is simply the extension of a small amount of col-
lateral-free institutional loans to jointly liable poor group
members for their self-employment and income-generation
(Rahman, 1999). The strategy is based on a creative grassroots
alternative to reliance on informal lenders as the source of
credit in situations where people, especially the poor, cannot
get access to formal credit such as loans from banks
(McDermott, 2001).
In low-income countries worldwide, microcredit for women
is increasingly used as a strategy for poverty alleviation and
women empowerment. Currently, there are arguments that
micro-lending to poor women holds the key to 21st century’s
sustainable economic and social development (Norwood,
2005; UN, 2011). The argument is that the biggest promises
of microcredit are to reduce poverty and empower women
(Norwood, 2005). Indeed, Mohammed Yunus, founder of
the Grameen Bank’s microfinance program in Bangladesh,
has suggested that microcredit is one simple idea that can
eradicate global poverty among women (Hulme & Mosley,
1996).
It is within this context that the micro-lending activities of
World Vision Ghana in the Nadowli District are to be under-
stood. World Vision Ghana is an international Christian relief
and development NGO dedicated to helping children and their
communities worldwide to reach their full potential by
tackling the causes of poverty. In Ghana, World Vision began
operation in 1980, and started the Nadowli Area Development
Programme in October 1993. The extension of microcredit to
women for micro-enterprise development is one of World
Vision’s strategies for women empowerment.
World Vision Ghana’s microcredit program is modeled on
the approach of the Grameen Bank. It lends to very poor indi-
viduals, all of whom are women. At the time of this research,
3,042 women were benefitting from the scheme. Lending was
based on groups rather than individuals, although loan sizes
vary from one group member to the other, usually depending
on loan managers’ evaluation of the capacity of each group
member to effectively manage the loan. A typical group con-
sisted of 10–20 borrowers, and lending to individuals within
the group occurred in sequence. The average loan size was
15 Ghana cedi (then approximately US$15 and now approxi-
mately US$ 5). Loans to groups were usually for a period of
6 months, with potential for increasing loan amounts in each
cycle. In principle, the size of loan should steadily increase
with regular and timely monthly interest payment by all group
members. In practice however, delays in payment of interests
often make it difficult for group members to receive additional
funds at the end of each loan cycle. No collateral was required,
and a flat interest rate of 20% per loan cycle (of 6 months) was
charged on loans. Borrowers are expected to start making
their monthly interest payment after a grace period of one
month. The central feature of the program is the joint-liability
*Final revision accepted: August 20, 2014
World Development Vol. 66, pp. 335–345, 2015
0305-750X/Ó2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.08.027
335
condition. That is in the event of any group member default-
ing, no group member is allowed to borrow again, and group
members are also collectively responsible for paying up the
debt of any single group member in case of default.
In view of the fact that World Vision Ghana’s microcredit
program aims to empower women, it is important to know
the extent to which women have been empowered as a result
of their access to these loans. Strikingly, 30 years into the
microcredit movement there is little solid evidence of how
microcredit affects the lives of clients in measureable ways
(Roodman & Morduch, 2009). Some studies from Asia sug-
gest that participation in Grameen Bank and the Bangladesh
Rural Advancement Committee micro-lending schemes is pos-
itively associated with a woman’s level of empowerment
(Hashemi et al., 1996; Sinha, 1998). Beyond the context of
Bangladesh and Asia more generally, few detailed studies have
been undertaken (Roodman & Morduch, 2009; UN, 2011). In
Ghana, although there are few studies that have examined dif-
ferent aspects of microcredit (Afrane, 2002; Arku & Arku,
2009; Schindler, 2010), to the authors’ knowledge, none of
the existing studies focused on women empowerment. Yet, it
is unclear whether empowerment is an automatic outcome
for all women everywhere, particularly in Africa where eco-
nomic, political, and socio-cultural circumstances may differ.
It is from the void of solid evidence to explain how microcredit
affects the lives of women in Africa that this paper becomes
relevant. As the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser
on Africa observed in 2011, this is a good time to reassess the
role of microcredit in Africa’s development (United Nations,
2011).
3. DEFINING EMPOWERMENT AND INDICATORS OF
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
For various reasons, the concept of empowerment is elusive
to define (Mason, 1987). Common to most conceptualizations,
however, is that empowerment is about change, choice, and
power. In this paper, we defined empowerment as a process
of change by which individuals or groups (in this case rural
women) with limited choice, freedom, and power are enabled
to gain and leverage power that enhances their ability to exer-
cise choice and freedom in ways that positively contribute to
their well-being.
That conceptualizations of empowerment are diverse makes
the identification and delineation of measureable indicators to
assess women’s empowerment very difficult (Mayoux, 1998).
Particularly problematic is the possible disjunction that may
arise between women’s own aims and notions of empower-
ment and externally derived empowerment criteria established
apriori. Similarly, behaviors and attitudes that might be used
to measure women’s empowerment in one society may have
no relevance in another (Hashemi et al., 1996). Moreover,
women are not a homogeneous group, so that it might not
be possible to identify one or two sets of criteria for women’s
empowerment that are equally relevant for all women. There-
fore, we agree with Mayoux (1998) that women’s own aspira-
tions and strategies are a central element in explaining
program outcomes, and must therefore be included in any
empowerment analysis.
To explore the level of women’s empowerment as a result of
their involvement in World Vision’s micro-credit program,
three main pathway matrixes of women empowerment were
used: Material, Relational, and Perceptual. Under these
matrixes are a total of seven indicators and specific actions
that characterize women empowerment. These indicators were
arrived at through extensive preliminary discussions with
women and loan managers using participatory learning and
action approaches (Mayoux, 1998) and pre-testing.
(a) Material pathway matrix
The material pathway matrix to women empowerment
encapsulates both measureable and non-measureable material
elements, possession and/or ownership of which are deemed
necessary in the determination of whether a woman is empow-
ered or otherwise. In the study communities, the following
specific indicators were identified.
–Engagement in income-generating activity: A woman was
asked whether before and after she was given the credit,
she engaged in any economic activity or employment that
generated income.
–Having disposable income – to make small purchases, pay
children’s school fees, buy food and medicine, and give
ko kuo (small amount of money given to support com-
munity members when they are bereaved). A respondent
was asked whether before and after she got involved with
the credit scheme, she had any cash savings or disposable
income that she could use to make small purchases on
her own, buy food and medicine as well as give ko kuo.
(b) Relational pathway matrix
The relational pathway matrix describes the relationship
and interaction between women and other members of their
household and community. Indicators here include:
–Control over loan use and income from loans: Once a
respondent was established to have received credit from
World Vision, we asked to know who controlled the
loans, funded enterprises, and any incomes or assets that
may accrue from the loan investment. A respondent was
specifically asked whether she exercised full, significant,
partial or no control over any profits or income that
accrued from investment made with the loan. A woman
was also specifically asked whether her husband or any
other member of her family has ever forcefully taken
away income from her loan investment. This was partic-
ularly important because our preliminary engagement
with both loan officials and women to determine what
counts as empowerment for women revealed that having
control over funded enterprises is a very important first-
step toward empowerment.
–Involvement in major family decision-making: We also
asked women whether before and after they received
the loan, they participated in decision-making (individu-
ally or jointly with husband or other kinsmen) within the
family on such issues as sale of family land or livestock,
sending children to school or the clinic and marrying out
of their daughters.
–Relative freedom from domination and abuse: A woman
was asked whether before and after she had access to
the loan, money, jewellery, or livestock had been taken
away from her against her will. The respondent was also
asked whether before and after she received the loan, she
had suffered any physical, emotional or verbal abuse
from her husband or any member of her family.
(c) Perceptual pathway matrix
The perceptual pathway matrix of women empowerment is
based on a woman’s own rough assessment of her status in
the household, family and community. In other words, this
336 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
aspect of empowerment seeks to shed light on women percep-
tion of well-being and the changes that they have experienced
since their involvement in the micro-credit scheme. Specific
indicators that were identified include:
–Reduced economic dependence on husband: Women were
asked to compare their level of economic dependence
on their husbands or other family members before and
after receiving the loan. Specifically, respondents were
asked whether before or after receiving credit, they
depended more on the earnings of their husbands or
other family members to make small purchases (e.g.,
food and clothing) for themselves or for other family
members such as children.
–Mobility and self-confidence/assertiveness: A respondent
was presented with a list of places and events – market,
clinic, and naming, wedding and funeral ceremonies in
or outside the community – and asked whether before
and after she received the loan, she had gone to any of
these places and events, whether she needed the permis-
sion of her husband or another person, and whether
she went there alone. A respondent was further asked
whether she felt her self-confidence or level of assertive-
ness had increased or decreased before or after she
accessed the loan.
We acknowledge that although these empowerment indica-
tors resulted from discussions with women and loan managers,
they might not fully capture the phenomenon of women
empowerment. This is all the more so in the context of Ghana
where women’s disempowerment is rooted in a number of fac-
tors including: limited political participation; low levels of
female education; poor health including high maternal mor-
bidity and mortality, and female genital mutilation; less sup-
portive legal environment that promotes gender equality and
women’s right; patriarchal and hegemonic masculinity norms
that view women as inferior to men; limited economic oppor-
tunities; and cultural practices such as forced marriage
(Anyidoho & Manuh, 2010). Indeed, as the indicators we iden-
tified above are only paths out, it is possible that women
empowerment might be rooted in something that microcredit
is unable to adjust for. Nevertheless, our research with women
suggests that these indicators fairly approximate the concept
of women empowerment in the study communities.
4. METHODS
(a) Research design
This study was designed as a longitudinal qualitative
research, involving an initial research phase and two addi-
tional phases of follow-up research. The first phase of the
research (December 2006–January 2007) was a baseline survey
to identify loan recipients and to enroll them in the qualitative
study. This phase also aimed to work with women and loan
managers to identify and delineate relevant indicators of
women empowerment. The second research phase (December
2009–January 2010) was used to gather data on the income-
generating activities of loan recipients and the effect of the
loans on their empowerment. The last research phase took
place in December 2011, a period during which World Vision
was preparing to fold-up its operations in the Nadowli district
in line with its normal programing cycle. The aim of this last
research phase was to evaluate changes in women empower-
ment overtime. The data reported in this paper however focus
on and compare findings from the first research phase to
the final round of research. This is because no significant
differences were observed between the results of our mid-term
research and those of final round.
The choice of a qualitative study design was informed by the
fact that the inherently limited potential for structured surveys
to contribute to understandings of women empowerment has
been widely acknowledged in the literature (Mayoux, 1998;
Roodman & Morduch, 2009; Sinha, 1998). Mayoux (1998)
and Sinha (1998) believe it is unlikely that existing quantitative
methods can realistically assess the impact of women’s access
to credit on their empowerment. Thus although a quantitative
design such as a survey with a large sample could have been
used in this research, such a design offers limited space for
an in-depth exploration of local narrative accounts on the
effects of microcredit on women empowerment. Qualitative
research, however, attempted to provide access to the opin-
ions, aspirations and power relationships that helped to
explain how people, places, and events (e.g., women empower-
ment) arose in identifiable local contexts which privileged indi-
vidual’s lived experiences (Karnieli-Miller, Strier, & Pessach,
2009). The qualitative methods used in this research generated
rich, contextually detailed, and valid process data that left the
participants’ perspectives minimally altered and enabled in-
depth exploration of the topic. Because majority of the women
in this study could not read and write to answer written ques-
tions, qualitative research using interviews was indeed a better
option.
(b) Study setting and research participants
Field research was conducted in five rural communities in
the Nadowli District of the Upper West Region of Ghana.
Participants were women drawn from the 3,042 rural
women-loan recipients and workers from the Nadowli Area
Development Programme of World Vision Ghana. In all,
there were 232 participants. Of this number, 230 were
women-loan recipients, and this represented eight per cent of
all women borrowers at the time. The remaining two were
local staff of World Vision. The ages of the women varied
between 18 and 46 years. The majority of the women had no
formal education. Several of the women were married or living
with a partner. The majority of the women also had between
one and five surviving children. In comparison with Ghana’s
2010 Population and Housing Census data for the Upper West
Region, the socio-demographic characteristics of our study
participants were generally very typical of the women popula-
tion in the region (see Ghana Statistical Service, 2012).
We chose World Vision Ghana’s microcredit program
mainly because of its emphasis on women empowerment.
We also chose Nadowli District because it is the first district
in the region where World Vision Ghana started its micro-
lending program. The five communities were also chosen
because they were among the oldest program areas of World
Vision Ghana in the district.
(c) Sampling procedures
The strategy for recruiting participants involved both prob-
ability and non-probability sampling procedures. For the
women, a simple random sampling procedure was used to
select participants. This involved a three-stage procedure.
First, we obtained the individual files containing names and
personal records of each of the women-loan recipient from
the five study communities from a central registry. In the sec-
ond stage of the sampling, we made a blindfolded person to
randomly select the required number of participants from
the pool of files for each community. Third, we then contacted
MICROCREDIT: EMPOWERMENT AND DISEMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN IN GHANA 337
each of the randomly selected persons in their various commu-
nities to discuss the study as well as conduct interviews. Where
any of the randomly selected participants was not available or
declined to participate in the study (and there were only two
such cases), we repeated the process to get replacements.
A purposive sampling technique was however used to select
staff of World Vision Ghana. This was a judgmental selection
based on the participant’s perceived role or knowledge of the
subject of study.
(d) Data collection methods
To reproduce rural women’s experiences about their partic-
ipation in World Vision’s micro-lending program, focus group
discussions and in-depth interviews were employed to collect
data. This was however complemented with the development
of a structured instrument to collect detailed demographic
and socio-economic organizational information about the par-
ticipants. Five focus groups (involving a total of 80 women
borrowers) and 150 in-depth interviews were conducted. In
each study community, one focus group was conducted in
addition to completing at least 25 individual in-depth inter-
views. Focus groups consisted of 12–20 women and all discus-
sions were held in the communities, usually at venues chosen
by the women and were organized on non-working days. All
focus groups were conducted in the local dialect (Dagaare)
of the study communities. Each focus group lasted for
90 min. In all groups, participants’ verbal consents were
gained and the discussions were audio recorded using a digital
recorder. This consent was attained in addition to ethical
clearance obtained from management of World Vision, tradi-
tional and opinion leaders of the study communities, and
women group leaders.
(e) Research instruments
Two main instruments were used. For the focus groups
and in-depth interviews, an open-ended thematic topic guide
and question guide respectively were designed to ensure that
the same themes were covered in each interview. The instru-
ment allowed questioning to flow naturally while permitting
us to probe more in-depth on certain pertinent issues. These
instruments focused primarily on documenting use of credit
in household economy, interactions between women-loan
recipients, and borrowers’ interaction with members of their
household. Some of the questions explored include: how did
you become a member of World Vision’s micro-lending
scheme – did you make the decision by yourself; before
you received the credit, were you engaged in any economic
activity or employment that generated income; did you have
any cash savings or disposable income that you could use to
make small purchases on you own; presently, do you have
any cash savings or disposable income on your own; what
did you do with the loan you received; are you making
profit from any investments that you made with the loan;
before you received the loan, did you participate in deci-
sion-making in your family/household, and on what kind
of issues; currently do you take part in household deci-
sion-making; who controls the profit or income that you
generate from your loan investment; and has your husband
ever forcefully taken away income from your loan invest-
ment? In addition, a more structured instrument or what
Hashemi et al. (1996) called the ‘household survival matrix’
was developed and administered to all 230 women. This
instrument sought to collect detailed information at several
points in time about economic activities and earnings of
members and processes of change in women’s role and sta-
tus within and outside the household.
To ensure that the final research instruments were reliable, a
pre-test was done in the study communities prior to actual
data collection. The pre-test enabled us to refine questions
and use appropriate concepts.
(f) Analysis
Following the completion of interviews, we analyzed the
data using the Attride-Stirling’s (2001) thematic network qual-
itative data analysis framework. This involved several steps.
The first step involved transcription and reading of transcripts
and field notes for overall understanding. The first author and
an independent language (Dagaare) specialist transcribed all
tape-recorded interviews from Dagaare to English. All the
authors then reviewed the transcript for overall understanding
and comprehension of meaning. This first step was completed
with a separate summary of each transcript outlining the key
points participants made. Second, the interview transcripts
were exported to NVivo 9 qualitative data analysis software,
where the data was both deductively and inductively coded.
Codes are labels, which are assigned to whole or segments of
transcripts and interview notes to help catalog key concepts
(Miles & Huberman, 1994). We continued coding the data
until theoretical saturation was reached (i.e., when no new
concepts emerged from successive coding of data). Third, we
applied the code structure to develop and report themes.
Themes simply represented some level of patterned response
or meaning within the data set (Boyatzis, 1998). Finally, all
the themes identified were collated into a thematic chart to
reflect basic themes, organizing themes, and global themes.
To ensure that the thematic chart reflected the data, we went
through the data segments related to each theme. Where nec-
essary, refinements were made. Where appropriate, we used
verbatim quotations from interview transcripts to illustrate
relevant themes. In few instances too, qualitative responses
are aggregated and presented in a quantitative fashion to facil-
itate easy understanding.
5. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
(a) Targeting women
We begin the presentation of our findings by briefly reflect-
ing on why women are the targets of World Vision Ghana’s
microcredit program. The official policy position of World
Vision Ghana for targeting women with credit is that empow-
ering rural women through the provision of microcredit would
enhance their productive capacity, and increase their economic
security and their confidence in demanding continued and
expanded opportunities for themselves (Sam, 2005). Targeting
women is further founded on the assumption of women’s
greater contribution to family welfare. The argument here is
that the priority of women is always to first invest their earn-
ings in their children, then subsequently, accompanied by
spending on their household necessities. The organization
therefore believes providing women with credit in order to
increase their earnings would generate more qualitative
and quantitative direct transformational benefits to family
welfare.
However, interviews with loan managers suggest other
reasons that directly raise questions about the sincerity of
the program’s commitment to women empowerment. One
loan manager said:
338 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
Why we give the loan to only women? Well, you know [that] in
the communities we work in, the men are not correct. When
you give them loan they will spend it or they will refuse to
pay back. It is very hard to work with them...you know most
of them are very mobile and so can easily disappear with the
loan. But with the women, they are ok, they are always around
the community and they are reliable. If I call a meeting today,
they will all come and they are also ok when it comes to paying
back the interests on their instalment. That is why we work
with them. (Loan Manager (Woman), IDI, Nadowli ADP).
In this way, the idea of targeting women, apart from it being
seen as the ‘rational thing to do’, is also a strategic one, meant
to facilitate easy recovery of loans. But World Vision’s
approach also highlights an important lesson about how
poorly adapted microcredit methodologies applied without
sufficient understanding of the socio-cultural context can have
some unexpected, adverse consequences, even while achieving
some good outcomes. Thus having an understanding of the
nature of potential loan recipients and the socio-cultural con-
text within which they live could be vital for the survival, effec-
tiveness and long-term success of any microcredit program.
(b) Volume, adequacy, and timing of loan
Table 1 shows the length of time respondents had benefited
from the scheme and the amount of loan received. Most of the
women (70%) we interviewed had been in the program from
between six and 10 years. In an earlier study in Bangladesh,
Hashemi et al. (1996) suggested that the longer a woman
stayed as a member of either BRAC or Grameen Bank, the
greater the likelihood that she will be empowered. Our focus
group discussions and in-depth interviews with women
revealed no such relationship. Thus the fact that one had ben-
efited from the scheme for long did not mean that one would
be empowered socially and economically. This, the women
reported, was because the ability to be empowered depended
on other more important factors such as the type of invest-
ment the loan was put into and whether a woman even had
control over the loan use and the income accruing thereof.
From the time they joined the scheme till the time of this
research, most women had received a cumulative loan amount
of between GH¢11 and GH¢30. While World Vision consid-
ered the various amounts it loaned to women appropriate
for rural women empowerment at the time, our interviews
with women regarding the adequacy of the loan amount they
received showed that most (92%) believed the amount was
woefully inadequate to engage in any meaningful income-gen-
erating activity. Participants noted that the small size of the
loan did not allow for investment in different ventures or
investments in business ventures that were high profit-yielding
but requiring larger capital investment. Although some
women managed to improve their incomes nevertheless, as
we show below, the small sizes of the loan that most women
complained about is part of the reason why some women
failed to invest their loans in economically rewarding ventures,
faced considerable difficulty repaying their loans, and had
even become more vulnerable and disempowered.
One other related problem our study documented was the
timing of the loan. Usually, loans are disbursed to women
annually in the month of June. About 56% of the women
interviewed said this timing was inappropriate mainly for
two reasons. First, the time coincided with what the women
described as the ‘‘hunger gap’’ in the district, during which
time food is difficult to come by. One widow illustrates the
point:
...Ah, time? This was a time I had nothing to feed my children
with. So when World Vision gave me the loan, I used it to buy
food! Should I invest this money in selling salt or pepper while
my family starve to death? (Woman, FGD).
Second, respondents noted that during this time of the year,
there is usually a shortage of agricultural produce such as gui-
nea corn – commodities women either trade-in directly or use
as raw materials for the production of other goods such as pito
(local beer brewed using maize or guinea corn). As a result,
many loans are either mismanaged or channeled into direct
consumption. By showing how disbursing loans for business
start-ups in the hungry season leads to non-investment, non-
repayment, and disempowerment, the findings here not only
raise questions about the specific methodology of World
Vision Ghana, but they also suggest that lack of appreciation
of the local economic context within which a microcredit
scheme is implemented could easily contribute to ineffective-
ness.
(c) The impact of World Vision Ghana’s microcredit program
(i) Women’s involvement in income-generating activities
As a first step toward empowerment, World Vision provides
credit to women so that they might engage in income-generat-
ing activities and thus bring about meaningful socio-economic
changes in their lives. Once loans are granted, borrowers must
invest their loans in productive activities and start paying their
installments every month using the profit earned from the loan
investment. Data were elicited to evaluate whether women
were actually involved in income-generating activities, the pro-
portion of loan recipients who already had income-generating
activities before receiving the loan, and how many of those
who did not have a business activity at the beginning suc-
ceeded in starting one after receiving the loan. Table 2 shows
respondents’ involvement in income-generating activities
before and after the loan.
Before receiving the loan, only 29% of our study respon-
dents were engaged in some business activity. This figure rose
to 62% after the loans were given, suggesting that 38% of
women who received the loan were unable to start any busi-
ness activity. While we discuss the reasons for this in Table 3
below, two issues need pointing out. First, given that a large
proportion of women were not already engaged in any
income-generating business but World Vision nevertheless
gave them loans for the purpose of starting up one, one could
applaud the organization for enhancing these women’s access
to finance. However, the fact that a considerable number of
these women failed to start-up any business suggests that
World Vision’s approach did not adequately appreciate what
women’s access to microcredit can do or not do in a context
Table 1. Years of involvement in scheme and loan
amount received
Characteristic Response Percent
Number of years involved in the scheme
1–5 48 21.0
6–10 161 70.0
11–15 21 9.0
Total 230 100.0
Cumulative Amount of Loan Received (GH¢)
P10 3 1.0
11–30 221 96.0
31–60 7 3.0
Total 230 100.0
MICROCREDIT: EMPOWERMENT AND DISEMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN IN GHANA 339
where economic opportunities for women are limited and
where women faced other economic necessities such as poverty
and hunger. Second, our interviews with loan recipients
revealed that most of the women who hitherto were not
engaged in any business activity but managed to start one after
receiving the loan were actually doing so for the first time.
Although exposure to income-earning activities in a single
generation might not be sufficient to wipe away long periods
of cultural conditioning, for these women, the fact that their
involvement in the NGO’s micro-lending program has enabled
them to be involved in economic activities that might generate
income was itself empowering.
It is very good that I got this loan. I used to stay at home
and do nothing. Things were very hard, but now, at least I
feel better because at the end of the day I will get something
[money] from my pito business to support my family
(Woman, IDI).
Table 3 shows the patterns of loan utilization among the 62%
of the women who were engaged in some form of business
activity after they received the loan. Most women invested
their loans in one of ten different economic activities including
pito brewing and food crop farming. Our research however
revealed two problematic issues as regards women’s loan
investment decisions. The first is that most women invested
their loans in activities that yielded little profit. In our discus-
sions with loan staff, it was clear that World Vision simply
assumed that there were profitable income-earning ventures
out there that rural women could engage in if only these
women had access to finance. However, our interviews with
women found that male dominance in the local economic
sphere tended to push most women into less profitable eco-
nomic activities such as those described in Table 3. But some
women also reported that they invested their loans in these
types of activities because of the small size of the loan they
received. That women are investing their loans in low-profit
businesses suggests that the prospects of paying the 20% inter-
est on loans could be unrealistic. Indeed, as we show below,
this is one primary reason why many women are unable to
pay the 20% interest on their loans, which then leads to several
undesirable outcomes including verbal abuse from other group
members.
The second issue is that a significant number of women
(38%) have even failed to invest their loans in any venture
that could generate income. Two main reasons accounted
for this. First, the initial loan capital went into direct con-
sumption. Several accounts were given about loans being
used to meet immediate household needs such as purchase
of food and medicine. Second, the loan was forcefully seized
or in some instances women themselves voluntarily handed
over the loan to their husbands or another family member.
For all these women, losing the initial loan capital often
initiates a process of dispossession and indebtedness that
culminates in a gradual but profound socio-economic
privation and disempowerment. The fact that a substantial
number of the loans are used for purposes other than invest-
ment in income-generating activities could be related to the
fact that World Vision’s loan operation policy does not
focus on women who already have an income-generating
activity neither does it emphasize a strong supervisory role
for loan managers. Rather it relies on mutual trust and
the joint liability clause to ensure that borrowers use their
loans for income-earning activities and to pay monthly
interest from the income earned. Unfortunately, these
management mechanisms are not always effective as loans
are rarely monitored. Thus lack of focus on women who
are already engaged in viable economic activities, breakdown
of the monitoring mechanism within the household
economy, low level of loan investment supervision, and
limited household resources, often intermingle to force
borrowers – who are usually faced with other economic
necessities – into diverting loans into uses other than those
sanctioned by the organization.
Of course the exact use of the loan should not be so relevant
if the purpose of World Vision’s microcredit program was
only to enhance women’s access to finance. However, given
that many loan recipients do not usually have any form of
business activity before receiving the loan, and the fact that
the program emphasizes the investment of loans in income-
generating activities, an outright use of loan funds for such
activities as school fees or food clearly raises questions about
the appropriateness of extending loans to women to start-up
new businesses. Our interviews with women suggest that in a
context such as the Nadowli district where economic opportu-
nities are limited and hunger and poverty very rife, a focus on
women who are already involved in income-generating activi-
ties has a better chance of succeeding due to the high potential
for small business start-ups to fail, and the fungibility of loans
among starters.
(ii) Impact on women’s income and contribution to household
welfare
Figure 1 is a representation of women’s own valuation of
their income status since accessing the credit, while Table 4
shows the distribution of changes in income between women
Table 3. Loan investment patterns
Loan use type Response Percent
Farming (food crops) 5 2.2
Pito (local beer) brewing 37 16.1
Frying and selling koose (bean cakes) 19 8.3
Petty trading in agricultural products e.g., maize 13 5.6
Petty trading in other consumer goods e.g., salt 17 7.4
Shea butter extraction and sale 21 9.1
Hairdressing 5 2.2
Sewing/dressmaking 8 3.5
Pigs rearing 8 3.5
Poultry farming 9 3.9
Direct loan consumption 27 11.7
Loan seizure by husband/loan given to
husband or another family member to use
61 26.5
Total 230 100.0
Table 2. Involvement income-generating activity before and after loan
Involvement in income-
generating activity
Involvement
before loan
Involvement
after loan
Percent
before loan
Percent
after loan
Change in
percentage
Yes 67 143 29.0 62.0 33 (+ve)
No 163 87 71.0 38.0 33 (ve)
Total 230 230 100.0 100.0
340 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
who already had an income-generating activity before receiv-
ing the loan and those who did not. These results are the out-
come of a question that asked women to describe their income
after they had accessed the loan.
Figure 1 indicates that 41% (94), 43% (99), and 16% (37) of
the women sampled, respectively, reported that their income
levels have improved, worsened and not changed. Table 4
however shows that majority of the women who had
income-earning activities before receiving the loan reported
increases (49) or no change (16) in income. On the contrary,
majority of our respondents who reported decreases in
incomes (97) were women who did not have any income-earn-
ing business before accessing the loan. Our interviews found
that most women who reported improvements in their income
had invested their loans in one productive activity or the other
or had expanded their existing businesses and were making
monthly profits of between GH¢1 and GH¢10. Although these
women admitted that the income they were earning were
rather meagre due in part to the low profit-yielding nature
of their investments, most were particularly proud of the
financial contribution they now make to their family welfare
and children’s education. A few of these women reported
how they were using their loans and the incomes accruing
from their loan investment to provide better quality and quan-
tity food, pay expenses of their children’s education and cloth-
ing needs.
However, for the majority of women whose incomes wors-
ened or remained stagnant, the situation is opposite. Such
women were found either not to be making any profits from
their investments or to have lost the initial loan capital to
non-productive ventures such as direct consumption. For the
majority of this category of respondents, not only were they
not able to contribute to their family welfare but also they
found it extremely difficult paying the monthly interest on
their loans. These women painfully tell of how they often have
to borrow from friends and other moneylenders to pay the
monthly interest on their loan in order to avoid defaulting
and escape the social pressures and shame that comes with
defaulting.
...Right now I really don’t know what to tell you...I don’t
know because this loan has made things difficult for me. My
business is not doing very well but you know...every month
I have to pay interest. I don’t have the money to always do
that. But I don’t want to default in paying the loan...they will
say I am bad. So in the past I have had to take part of the ini-
tial loan capital to go and pay the interest. I have even bor-
rowed from two of my friends to pay the interest. Now I am
in big debt (Woman, IDI).
Clearly, our findings here suggest that microcredit programs
for women are likely to have a more positive impact on house-
hold incomes if such programs are targeted at women already
engaged in some business venture.
(iii) Control over loan and income from funded enterprises
World Vision Ghana provides credit to women on the
assumption that women will – individually or collectively –
exercise full control over both the loan and the investments
that they make. However, in reality, this assumption usually
does not apply. Findings show that in more than half of the
cases women had no control over funded enterprises. Figure
2illustrates this. Forty per cent of the women sampled indi-
cated that they exercised no control over the loan they
received, including funded enterprises as well as incomes and
assets that may accrue. Only 16% were able to fully control
their loans and enterprises while some 21% and 23% exercised
significant and partial control, respectively.
Our in-depth engagement with participants revealed that
while women are the loan recipients, decisions about how
these loans are used and who might exercise control, take
place within the household economy. In the study communi-
ties, the household generally operates as both a cooperative
productive unit and political entity where economic decisions
are made and power and control is exercised. Focus group dis-
cussions with women found that in the majority of cases men
(mostly husbands) controlled the loans and funded enterprises
in whole or in part as well as supplied installments for the
monthly interest payment. Two main reasons explain this.
The first is related to the fact that in more than half of the
cases, husbands and other male relations in the household
made the initial decision for a woman to join the credit pro-
gram by either sending or influencing her to become a member
of World Vision Ghana’s micro-lending program. In a few
cases, women gave graphic accounts of how their husbands
not only asked them to join but also literally forced them to
join in order to acquire funds for their (husbands) usage. In
part, this explains why husbands will either completely seize
the loan or exercise total control over the loan and funded
Figure 1. Credit impact on women’s income.
Table 4. Distribution of changes in income after loan
Participant categories Income increased
after loan
Income decreased
after loan
No change in income
after loan
Total
Already had an income-generating activity 49 2 16 67
Didn’t have an income-generating activity 45 97 21 163
Total 94 99 37 230
Figure 2. Women’s control over loans and funded enterprises.
MICROCREDIT: EMPOWERMENT AND DISEMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN IN GHANA 341
enterprises. Indeed, there were several accounts of husbands
forcefully taking away income or selling out assets acquired
by women from their loan investment.
The second reason why very few women were able to exer-
cise control over the loans and funded enterprises is that exist-
ing patriarchal and socio-cultural norms restrict women’s
ability to own or exercise control over assets. In the existing
socio-cultural milieu of the Nadowli district, women may
own assets through inheritance or self-purchase. However,
fewer women are able to claim ownership and control over
these assets because men usually exercise management and
use rights even if it is the woman who acquires the assets leg-
ally. One participant makes the point:
...Control assets in the house? Don’t you know our tradition?
When a man marries a woman, he owns and controls her, her
children, and everything the woman has! How will a woman
own and control anything in a man’s house? (Woman, IDI).
In focus groups, some participants related personal accounts
about how they willingly handed over their loans, assets,
and resources to their male counterparts thinking that men
are better in handling and managing monetary transactions.
Todd (1995) suggests that since men’s enterprises are often
more profitable than women’s, investing loans in men’s activ-
ities may be a rational strategy. While this may be true, the
women in our study reported how men often misappropriate
these resources or utilize them in a manner that greatly disfa-
vours them (women).
In our interviews, women’s qualitative accounts suggested
that lending to women who have full or significant control
over proceeds from their loans was more likely to enhance
their incomes and empowerment, while lending to those who
have no control over the loan and income from their invest-
ments only make things worse.
I think the loan is only good for those women who take care of
themselves...I mean women who are in-charge of their busi-
nesses and can determine what they want to use the loan for.
For others like myself who do not control how the loan should
be used, and our husbands determine everything, things are
really not good (Woman, IDI).
(iv) Credit and women’s involvement in major family decision-
making
Access to credit and participation in income-generating
activities are assumed to strengthen women’s bargaining posi-
tion within the household, thereby allowing them to influence
a greater number of strategic decisions (Hashemi et al., 1996).
In poor Ghanaian communities in particular, men’s domina-
tion over women is strongest within the household. Women’s
ability to participate and influence decisions that affect their
lives at the household level is therefore considered one of the
principal components of empowerment. While it is less clear
exactly what types of decisions and what degree of participa-
tion and influence should be classified as empowerment,
this study records marginal increase in women’s levels of
participation in making important household decisions after
access to credit. Table 5 compares respondents’ participation
in household decision making before and after their access
to the loan.
Of particular significance is the general drop in the percent-
age of women who were hitherto non-participants in house-
hold decision-making from 50.4 to 23. Of course correlation
here does not mean causality. However, based on women’s
own accounts, their involvement in World Vision Ghana’s
micro-lending program appears to have contributed to an
increase in the number who now participated in making vari-
ous household decisions. One woman recounted:
Ah World Vision! World Vision has made it possible for me to
have a say in whatever happens in the house. Before then, I
had no say. My husband never respected my opinions
(Woman, IDI).
Accordingly, if for nothing at all, and even if they (women)
ceded control over their loans and funded enterprises to their
husbands – voluntarily or forcefully – the fact that they
(women) have become means through which new resources
(loan funds) could be pulled into the household has greatly
increased their status and bargaining power within the house-
hold.
(v) Credit and women’s relative freedom from domination and
abuse
While World Vision Ghana’s credit program might have
had marginal empowerment benefits in terms of women’s par-
ticipation in household decision-making, domination and
abuse against women borrowers have escalated in all study vil-
lages. Our in-depth interviews with women revealed that the
increase in abuse came from two main sources: group mem-
bers and husbands.
Abuse from group members emanated from the program’s
reliance on the joint-liability condition. Because of the joint-
liability condition, the credibility of a particular women-bor-
rower-group to World Vision Ghana and the potential for
new loans for its members is often greatly jeopardized when
even one member in the group fails to maintain regular
monthly payment of interests. Indeed, in the event that one
member delays payments or totally defaults, all the other
group members who paid their interests in a timely manner
must wait until such a time that every member in the group
pays up. This often generates enormous conflict among group
members as pressure is often exerted on defaulting members to
pay. Several women borrowers in our study lamented over
how other group members used moral coercion, verbal
Table 5. Women’s participation in household decision-making before and after access to loan
Decision type Participation
before loan
Participation
after loan
Percent
before loan
Percent
after loan
Change in
percentage
Sale of family land 13 23 5.7 10.0 4.3 (+ve)
Sale of family livestock 27 35 11.7 15.2 3.5 (+ve)
Use of household income 30 50 13.0 21.7 8.7 (+ve)
Schooling of children 19 31 8.3 13.5 5.2 (+ve)
Sending family member for medical care 17 28 7.4 12.2 4.8 (+ve)
Giving out daughter/son in marriage 8 10 3.5 4.3 0.8 (+ve)
None 116 53 50.4 23.0 27.4 (ve)
Total 230 230 100.0 100.0
342 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
aggression and physical assault to compel them to pay their
monthly interest.
Have I had any problems? Yes...Yes. Recently, I was almost
wounded at the borehole! Why?...because when it was time
to pay the interest on my loan, I didn’t have money. So on
the day of interest payment, all my group members went to
pay except me. In fact I was busy going from one market to
the other at that time hoping that I would get the money.
But when I returned to the village, the group leader and other
members confronted me to pay the interest. I told them I
didn’t have the money yet, but they would not listen to me.
They used very bad words on me ... very abusive language
and hurled insults on me. Some said I was lazy; others said I
was very irresponsible; and some even threatened to beat me
if I failed to pay...and there are several others like me in this
village who also feel this pressure and suffer this abuse because
they are unable to pay (Woman, IDI).
Others tell of how their peers violently confiscated their sale-
able household items and personal assets including cooking
pots and sold them out in order to collect monthly installment.
What makes the situation worse according to most accounts is
the fact that very often, the confiscation and abuse take place
in the public sphere such as in the market. This brings shame,
embarrassment and emotional trauma to victims and their
household. Clearly, these are the hidden costs of the Gram-
een-style group liability approach; but perhaps without such
enforcements too the group methodology would not work
and women would not have access to the loans because the
program would not be sustainable if clients did not repay. In
this regard, it is worth pointing out that the ways in which
the groups enforce the joint liability makes the loans not
entirely as collateral-free as they appear. Given that the groups
are largely able to enforce the joint liability condition among
themselves – loan repayment performance rate was estimated
to be above 65% – we would argue that the NGO does not
even have to impose any collateral on loans.
But it is not only women borrowers who perpetrate abuse on
defaulting group members. Within the household too, the
majority of the loan recipients interviewed said they experience
both physical and verbal assaults of some kind from their hus-
bands and other male guardians, albeit for different reasons.
Findings here suggest that abuse against women borrowers
results mainly from disagreement over loan use or control.
As argued earlier, men control the management and use of
most loans that women bring into the household. But before
men are able to establish full management or use control,
abuse is often involved. The incidence of domestic abuse
against women loan borrowers arises as a result of some
women challenging the legitimacy and/or propriety of men’s
attempt to exercise management and use rights over loans
and funded enterprises. In the majority of the cases, respon-
dents reported that women questioned their husbands’ man-
agement or use of the loan or funded enterprise, incurring in
the process, the wrath of angry husbands who feel their
authority is being threatened by their wife’s behavior.
Are you asking whether we have had any problems with our
husbands since we were given the loan? That one...I can per-
sonally say I have had a lot. Every now and then my husband
would fight me. This happened anytime I asked him to pay me
back monies he has taken from my business. I really don’t
know, but any time I asked, he would just be angry...he would
insult me and if I asked further questions he would just beat
me up. (Woman, FGD).
In this way, our findings here sharply contradict one study on
the Grameen Bank which found that credit programs reduced
domestic violence by channeling resources to families through
women (Schuler, Hashemi, & Riley, 1997). They are however
consistent with those of Rahman’s (1999) study in the Tangail
region of Bangladesh where abuse against women borrowers
was found to have escalated following their access to credit.
For most of the women surveyed in this paper, abuse against
them within the household furthers their disempowerment – a
development that is complete anathema to the original intent
and purpose of World Vision’s micro-lending program.
(vi) Credit and women’s economic dependence on husband
Women’s economic independence is another major factor
that can enhance their empowerment. Traditionally, women
in the study area are engaged in household activities that are
non-wage earning such as working in their husbands’ farms
and caring for children. This renders them economically
dependent on their husbands and other male kin. World
Vision Ghana is of the opinion that if women had opportuni-
ties for gainful employment outside the household through
their access to credit, their contribution to household wellbe-
ing would help reduce household poverty as well as reduce
women’s overall economic dependence on their husbands.
In our research, women’s economic independence was eval-
uated both before and after their involvement with the loan
program. The results are presented in Table 6.
Generally, women’s access to credit appears to have a very
limited effect on their dependence on the earnings of their hus-
bands or other relatives. Apart from food purchases and
expenditures from payment of children school fees, which
experience marginal decline in terms of the number of women
depending on their husbands or other kinsmen earnings,
women’s economic dependence has increased for the rest of
the evaluated variables. Qualitative analysis identified two
main reasons why this is the case. First is the limited control
women have over their loan and funded enterprises. Generally,
husbands control women’s loans and funded enterprises. Con-
sequently, not only do women depend on their husbands for
the supply of installments to pay their monthly interests, but
they have also become chronically dependent on the same hus-
bands for procuring certain basic necessities and personal
effects.
Table 6. Women’s economic dependence on husband’s/kin’s earnings before and after access to loan
Expenditure/purchase type Dependence on husband’s/kin’s
earnings before loan
Dependence on husband’s/kin’s
earnings after loan
Percent
before loan
Percent
after loan
Change in
Percentage
Food 205 196 89.0 85.0 4 (+ve)
Clothing 190 197 83.0 86.0 3 (ve)
Medicine 198 201 86.0 87.0 1 (ve)
Jewelry 155 174 67.0 76.0 9 (ve)
Child school fees 223 187 97.0 81.0 6 (+ve)
Hair cream and other body accessories 148 163 64.0 71.0 7 (ve)
Ko kuo 98 119 43.0 52.0 9 (ve)
MICROCREDIT: EMPOWERMENT AND DISEMPOWERMENT OF RURAL WOMEN IN GHANA 343
I think things have gone from bad to worse. I used to ask him
[referring to husband] for money to buy ingredients for making
soup, clothing and other things. But now, I have to even ask
for more...money to pay the interest on the loan. (Woman,
IDI).
The second reason is that the income-generating activities that
are primarily controlled by women such as pito brewing typi-
cally yield modest income compared with the earnings of men
in wage labor. In this vein, most women are not self-sufficient
in terms of personal income and therefore still have to depend
on the earnings of their male counterparts to make various
purchases and meet different household expenditures.
(vii) Credit and women’s mobility and self-confidence/assertive-
ness
Fernando and Porter (2002) have argued that increasing
women’s mobility can empower them to exercise greater con-
trol over their lives by increasing their access to markets, edu-
cation and information. We therefore evaluated the effects of
microcredit on women’s social and economic mobility and
how they promote women’s self-confidence or assertiveness
in the Nadowli district. Findings from qualitative interviews
with women suggest that prior to their involvement with the
loan scheme, most women were consigned to the private
sphere and the affairs of the home. This heavily restricted
women’s mobility and self confidence to be actively involved
in market transactions, thereby providing them with limited
opportunity and ability to meet different people and gain
new experiences for their empowerment. However, many of
the women-loan-recipients reported several important changes
after they joined the scheme. One participant recalled:
Me...before I had this loan to start my pito brewing business I
was the home type, poor and very timid. Anytime I wanted to
go anywhere, I needed to ask my husband for money, and any-
time he said he didn’t have money, it means I couldn’t go. But
now that I am doing this business and I am making small
money, I feel very confident, I don’t fear...I can go to Nadowli
market, Sankana market, Tangasie market, Bussie market, and
even Wa (the regional Capital) without depending on him to
give me lorry fare (Woman, FGD).
Also, few women noted that through their travel to do busi-
ness or participate in weekly group meetings, not only is their
mobility greatly enhanced, but also these movements do ‘open
their eyes and ears to the outside world’. They therefore gain
exposure to new ideas as well as opportunities for their
empowerment. Furthermore, by participating in weekly
meetings, these women are able to acquire a degree of self-
confidence.
At the same time however, a substantial number of borrow-
ers noted that sometimes the shame and embarrassment
associated with defaulting and having to be confronted by
other borrowers, prevented some women from moving into
the public sphere. For such women, access to credit has
actually profoundly limited their mobility beyond the home.
6. CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The extension of microcredit to women has the potential to
impact powerfully on women’s empowerment. Our aim in this
paper was to examine the empowerment effects of the micro-
lending operation of an NGO-managed microcredit program
to poor women in a rural district of Ghana. Findings show
that some women are empowered along several dimensions
as a result of their access to loans; several other women have
little control over the use of loan funds and are therefore no
better off due to receiving credit; while some women are sub-
jected to harassment and abuse due to their indebtedness
and inability to repay loans, and are therefore worse off.
Our findings suggest that those women who became more
empowered as a result of their access to credit were women
who either were already engaged in some business venture
before receiving the loan or they exercised full or significant
control over proceeds from their loans. On the contrary,
women borrowers who became vulnerable and even disem-
powered were those who either received loans to start-up
new businesses but who actually failed to do so due to loss
of loans to other unapproved loan uses such as direct con-
sumption, or those who had no control over investments
and earnings from their loans.
Of course, these results must be interpreted with the under-
standing that identifying microcredit impact on women
empowerment is a rather problematic enterprise due to the
fungibility of credit, non-randomness in program participation
(selection bias), and non-randomness of program placement
(Khandker, 1998). Moreover, it might be too ambitious to
expect that years of male domination over women will be
removed by a few years of women involvement in a microcred-
it program. Nevertheless, the evidence presented in this paper
clearly exposes the gulf that can exist between the vision for
promoting women’s access to microcredit and its actual oper-
ation and impact on women empowerment, and called into
question some of the specific methodology used by World
Vision Ghana as well as the general notion that microcredit
empowers women.
Our findings show that the impact of any microcredit pro-
gram depends on the socio-economic and cultural contexts
in which it is implemented, and that women might experience
both great advantages and disadvantages from accessing
credit, depending on their situations and whether they are able
to service their debt or not. In some cases, access to credit
might be the only input needed on the road to women empow-
erment. At the same time, our findings also suggest that in a
culture in which women have little control over their loans
and income from their investments, it is a singularly poor envi-
ronment to give out credit to women to start-up new busi-
nesses. This would suggest that World Vision’s and other
similar microcredit schemes need to revise their lending
approach to focus on a number of things. First, it might be
better to focus on clients already having an income-generating
activity that generates sufficient income to repay the loan. This
would not only help loan recipients to grow their existing busi-
nesses and generate more income, but it would also ensure the
sustainability of the schemes themselves. Second, it might also
be useful to first screen and determine which clients have ade-
quate control to be able to use a loan productively. This might
require moving beyond individual women to focusing also on
families and communities to redress powerlessness and gender-
based discrimination against women.
But in addition to the above recommendations, the loan
size, timing of initial disbursement, and monitoring, are issues
that must be relooked at. Our study indicates that small loan
sizes, inappropriate timing of loan disbursement, and general
laxity in the supervision of how disbursed loans are managed
within the household economy led not only to the use of credit
for untended purposes, but also to an increase in the debt-
liability of borrowers. Also the low profit-yielding nature of
women’s investment activities contributed to undermining
the spaces for women empowerment, while struggles over loan
use and control over loan-funded enterprises within the
household as well as increasing debt-liability of individual
344 WORLD DEVELOPMENT
borrowers created new forms of abuse, dominance, and con-
trol over borrowers. These findings from our research clearly
support the need to increase the sizes of loans to levels that are
sufficient enough to be invested in high profit-yielding income-
generating ventures. Similarly, we recommend that the timing
of loan disbursement should be changed to be in a season
where economic opportunities and food are abundant rather
than scarce, while effective loan monitoring mechanisms
should be put in place to address the high potential for loan
fungibility.
Finally, and with regards to how the joint liability condition
is enforced when one group member is unable to pay the inter-
est in time, we recommend that groups should be encouraged
to build-up their own emergency savings/funds through small
contributions at their regular meetings. Such funds could be
loaned out (and to be replaced later) to group members who
might have legitimate reasons for being unable to repay at
the time of collection. This could reduce the harassment,
abuse, and seizure of assets that insolvent borrowers often
experience due to other group members having to cover for
them out of their own pocket.
In conclusion, empowerment cannot always be assumed to
be an automatic outcome of women’s access to microcredit
particularly in contexts such as Ghana where women still face
considerable socio-economic disadvantages relative to men.
Although microcredit could be a first step in a process that
could take 2–3 generations, it is unrealistic to expect women’s
access to microcredit to instantly change a pattern of male
domination as well as other social and cultural conditions –
that may have existed for time immemorial – that deprive
women of control over their economic activities and the pro-
ceeds thereof. However with adequate loan size, appropriate
timing, effective monitoring, and better screening methods that
avoid giving loans to those who are not likely to be in a posi-
tion to repay through the determination of which women have
inadequate control to be able to use a loan productively,
women’s access to microcredit can enhance their empower-
ment.
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