Paper
Spatial and Socio-economic Dimensions of Clients of Microfinance Institutions in Ghana
Improving MFI targeting in Ghana
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12 pages
This paper contributes to the debate on spatial and socio-economic dimensions of microfinance interventions by examining the backgrounds of MFI clients and non-clients in Ghana.
The study collected data from 1,628 client households from 17 MFIs and 1,104 non-client households in three ecological zones of the country. It used the Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool to analyze clients' background and MFI outreach. Findings include:
- Two regions of high well-being are ringed by relatively well-off areas;
- Highest levels of poverty are found in the northern parts of the country;
- MFIs served more poor clients in less well-off areas at the national level, but comparison within regions showed higher reach to non-poor even in these poor areas;
- Outreach by gender was minimal;
- Clients in self-employed agriculture tended to be in the lowest quintiles compared to those in non-farm activities.
The study concludes that targeting less well-off areas at the national level will automatically lead to supporting the poor, but recommends addressing within-area variability. It also recommends gender-based strategies to target women and policies to focus on clients in agriculture.
