The Impact Of Micro-Credit Projects On Poverty Alleviation: A Case Of Farming Households In Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area Of Ogun State, Nigeria
In an attempt to reduce the poverty level of the populace especially the rural households, Nigerian government introduced poverty alleviation programme. One of the programmes is the introduction of micro-credit projects. This study therefore examined the impact of micro-credit projects on poverty alleviation among farming households in Imowo community in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area (LGA) of Ogun state, Nigeria. The study focused on the evaluation of community development as a result of the introduction of some micro-credit projects. Structured questionnaires were used to collect information from the respondent in the farming households. The information collected included the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents as well as the level of income of the beneficiaries before and after the micro-credit projects. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The study revealed that 90 percent of the respondents were aged between 21 and 60 years while 80 percent of the household heads had formal education. Eighty six percent of the households had Child Dependency Ratio (CDR) of between 0.01 and 1.0 with 10 percent having zero CDR. The monthly expenditure analysis revealed that the Mean Per Adult Equivalent Household Expenditure (MPAEHE) ranged from N845.14 (US$5.63) for the first expenditure decile to N3,879.42 (US$25.86) for the tenth decile. However, the share of food in the total household expenditure was 64.5 percent for the first decile and 45.3 percent for the tenth decile. Meanwhile, a poverty line of N2,586.28 (US$17.24) was obtained for the study area and a sum of N1,586.53 (US$10.57) would be required to provide a food basket that will meet the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 69,000kcal per month. Furthermore, the study revealed that there is significant difference between the mean income of the beneficiaries before and after the micro-credit project (p<0.05). The study recommended that in as much that the project had positi
