Women Financial Self-sufficiency through Microfinance, Evidence from Northern Ghana

Abstract

This article argues that, though microfinance is endorsed as a financial tool to poverty alleviation in most developing countries including some parts of Ghana, the rural Northern Ghanaian woman who faces a patriarchy society is yet to benefit from microfinance. A snowballing sampling procedure was used to sample and investigate 247 microfinance clienteles' financial self-sufficiency challenges from the three Northern Regions of Ghana.  SPSS statistical software was employed to analyze the primary data. The results confirmed that, households' sizes in rural Northern Ghana are very large, with an average of eleven members in a single household, majority of the people in the active working class are complete illiterates or had only basic formal education. Also, the area of the study is male dominance societies, which are the major hindrances that confront the positive impact of microfinance in improving the women financial position in the area. This study concludes that microfinance alone is not the solution to women's financial self-sufficiency in Northern Ghana, therefore, recommends that Ghana Government reinforces the free education system for persons living in the Northern Territory of Ghana.