Socioeconomic impact of micro finance institutions on urban poor population: a case study of Kasokoso, Wakiso District

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to find out the socioeconomic impact of micro finance institutions on the urban poor population. This study was taken from Kasokoso in Wakiso district targeting needy farmers and businesses fraternity. A case study research design was used in this study because the researcher intended to gain a deep and thorough understanding of the phenomena and because of the flexibility of the data collection methods. A sample size of 40 respondents was computed using Cochran method. Primary data was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire for the first time from respondents familiar with the study after which the data was captured by Ms. Excel and then imported into Stata 15.0 for analysis. Univariate analysis showed that the highest percentage of the beneficiaries were primary education leavers of whom the majority had between one to four dependents. Most of these were engaged in the informal sector with dire need for businesses financing and livelihood improvement despite the limited resources by the MFIs. Further, the Chi-square analysis revealed evidence of an association between assistance from MFIs and ability of beneficiaries to have three meals a day, afford medical facilities and a decent shelter as well as the ability to send their children to school, while the logistic regression output indicated that age of the beneficiary, their years spent in education, children ever born by the beneficiary, number of meals in their households and ability to afford school fees predicted increased odds for benefiting from MFIs. Since the resources by the MFIs do not match the influx of the needy people in Kasokoso, microfinance institutions should deal with the smaller needy numbers of people, offering them adequate support, empowering them and make them stand on their own, and then move on to the next group within the same community so as to encourage sustenance.