Volume 119 No. 16 2018, 2967-2977 · 2018-07-15 · is effective tool to elevating poverty or reducing the poverty. The unavailability of credit facility to the women is the main

Women Empowerment through Micro Finance: Step towards Elevating poverty evidence

from Ethiopia: A Case Analysis in Amhara Region.

*Dr.Kavitha Nachimuthu,

Associate Professor, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, College of

Agriculture and Rural Transformation, University of Gondar, Ethiopia

Abstract

Gender discrimination is a common problem faced by women all over the world which

need to empower women for elevating poverty and uplifting their standard of living in the

present scenario. The present study focuses on the significance in alleviating poverty. Women

are disempowered in the society due to various reasons like financial problem, gender

discrimination, religious issue, cultural aspects and social aspects..Samplesize of 120 rural

women was taken for the study purposein Shilika, Iyamba, Thikilinkai, Robith,Amhara Region,

Ethiopia. The aim of the paper is to address these issues to empower the women. There was

evidence that micro finance brings about changes in the family well-being, spending habit, health

awareness, participation in decision making, improvement of social status. Micro finance

Institution is a formal financial institution in Ethiopia which helps in availing financial services

such as interest free loan without collateral to the rural poor.

Keywords: Micro finance, women empowerment,poverty, social status, micro credit and micro

savings

Introduction

Women empowerment is important to face the challenges of gender discrimination, issues

related to poverty, unemployment, health awareness, community participation and political

aspects. Women are more vulnerable to the poverty issues and always depend on men.

Empowerment of women provides strengthen to face the challenges. The reasons for women

disempowerment due to their family burden, income level, educational status, family status,

employment opportunity and etc.Micro credit is small amount loan provided to the rural poor. It

is effective tool to elevating poverty or reducing the poverty.The unavailability of credit facility

to the women is the main problem as thepowerful asset of the nation. Micro finance is considered

International Journal of Pure and Applied MathematicsVolume 119 No. 16 2018, 2967-2977ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/Special Issue http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

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for the rural people who belongs to weaker section in the community and who are unable to

access the financial services and their needs. Main purpose is to make investment, promote the

development without any collateral security.The concept was initiated by Dr.Muhammed Yunus

is Bangladeshi social entrepreneur to provide financial assistance to the poor people whofounded

Grameen Bank.The research work is based on women empowerment is possible by access micro

credit and women empowerment indicates the step towards alleviating poverty.

Impact of Women Empowerment and Micro Finance in Ethiopia

Micro finance is playing very important role in providing financial services to the poor. It

helps women in strengthening their financial status and economic empowerment. It is a tool to

reduce the poverty, lower standard of living, gender discrimination. Lack of awareness about the

microfinance programs, women‟s personal life and social life. It considered women and provides

the various monetary benefits to their family in various aspects such education, health and

improved standard of living. Micro finance programs have increased income of the women as

well as increase their saving habits. It also enhanced their economic, social and psychological

empowerment of the rural women. It helps rural women to take part in family issues and decision

making.

Impact of women empowerment and micro finance helps the rural women in various

aspects such as improvement in Self-Confidence, level, Enhanced Standard of Living,

Leadership skills, Communication skills, Health awareness, Decision making, Banking operation

awareness, Women‟s Status and Gender Relations in their Home, Family Relationships and

Domestic Violence, Women‟s Involvement and Status in the Community, Women‟s Rights and

Political status. Micro finance institutions encourage the rural people and provide micro credit

and loans to farmers, small business and rural women. It introduces the financial services to the

rural communities without any collateral securities not like conventional banking. MFIs has

taken initiative to uplifting and women in Ethiopia

Objectives of the study

International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue

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To examine the relationship between micro finance and women empowerment.

To assess the role of microfinance in empowering women

To provide suggestions to strengthen the women empowerment

Research Methodology

The present study is based on descriptive survey method. The sample size of the

study consists of 120 respondents in Shilika, Iyamba, Thikilinkai, Robith in Amhara Region,

Ethiopia. Primary and secondary data were collected from the respondents. A structured

questionnaire was used to collect the information for the study purpose. The questionnaire were

prepared and distributed for collection of data. Women who availed micro credit from micro

finance Institutions were selected for the research purpose and data were analyzed.The

respondents investigated the role of micro finance towards elevating poverty. SPSS is used for

analyzing the data for the study purpose.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Table 1 Demographic profile of the respondents

Demographic

profile

Particulars Frequency Percentage Cumulative

percentage

Age group of the

respondents

15-30 36 30 30

31-45 54 45 75

above 45 30 25 100

Total 120 100

Marital Status

married 74 61 61

separated 20 17 78

widow 24 20 98

divorced 2 2 100

Total 120 100

Education

cannot read and write 56 47 47

grade 5 to 10 24 20 67

above grade 10 27 23 90

graduate 13 10 100

Total 120 100


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Occupation

daily wage 12 10 10

farming activity 90 75 85

leisure and social

activity 18 15 100

Total 120 100

income of the

respondents

below 1000 24 20 20

1000-2000 42 35 55

2000-3000 30 25 80

3000-4000 14 12 92

above 4000 10 8

100

Total 120 100

Source: Primary data

From the above table 1 represents that, 45% of the respondents belongs to the age group of 31-45

years old and 25% of the respondents belongs to the age group of above 46 years old. 61 % of

the respondents are married and 2 % of the respondents are divorced.47% of the respondents

cannot read and write and 10% of the respondents are graduates.75% of the respondents are

doing farming activity and 15% of the respondents are leisure and social activity.35% of the

respondetns are getting 1000-2000 birr as monthly income and 8% of the respondents are

getting above 4000 birr as their monthly income .

Table 2 . Over all Factor –KMO Bartlett’s Test

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling

Adequacy. 0.931

Bartlett's Test of

Sphericity

Approx. Chi-Square 2469.283

Df 105

Sig. 0

Source: Computed data

From the above table it is found that the KMO measure of sampling adequacy is 0.931 and

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity with appropriate of Chi-square value 2469 and statistically

significant @ 5% level. Therefore it can be concluded that the 15 variables possess appropriate

variance over the required sample size. These variables also form a normal distribution and


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grouped to frame the meaningful factor. It leads to further verification of individual variances as

shown in the following communalities table.

Table.2 a. Communalities Table

From the above table it is found that 15 variables possess the individual variances ranging from

0.741 the least value to 0.955 the highest value. This leads the derivation of number of factors

out of 15 variables as stated in the total variance table.

Table.2.b. Total variance explained

Communalities

Initial Extraction

Family income increases 1 0.864

Savings increases 1 0.859

Availability of resources 1 0.832

Promotional assistance increases 1 0.741

Control over income increases 1 0.876

Children‟s education increases 1 0.875

Standard of living increases 1 0.850

Leadership skills increases 1 0.937

Communication skills increases 1 0.955

Health awareness increases 1 0.938

Decision making skills improves 1 0.863

Banking operation awareness increases 1 0.925

Women‟s right and political

empowerment 1 0.939

Involvement and status in community

improves 1 0.911

Employability skills improves 1 0.920

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.


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Total Variance Explained

Compone

nt

Initial Eigenvalues

Extraction Sums of Squared

Loadings

Total

% of

Variance

Cumulative

% Total

% of

Variance

Cumulative

%

1 13.284 88.559 88.559 13.284 88.559 88.559

2 0.613 4.090 92.649

3 0.427 2.850 95.499

4 0.277 1.845 97.344

5 0.117 0.777 98.121

6 0.078 0.519 98.640

7 0.059 0.392 99.032

8 0.042 0.282 99.314

9 0.025 0.167 99.480

10 0.023 0.151 99.632

11 0.020 0.133 99.765

12 0.016 0.108 99.873

13 0.008 0.056 99.929

14 0.006 0.041 99.970

15 0.005 0.030 100.000

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Factors influencing Women Empowerment

Cronbach„s Alpha is designed as a measure of internal consistency of items in the questionnaire.

It varies betweenzero and one. The closer alpha is to one, the greater the internal consistency of

the items in the questionnairetotalnumber of questions or items in the questionnaire is 15. Hence

N of items in the below Cronbach„s Alpha test is 15.

Table .3 Reliability Statistics


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Reliability Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items

0.989 15

Table.3.a. Items of Total statistics

Items Total Statistics

Scale Mean

if Item

Deleted

Scale

Variance if

Item Deleted

Corrected

Item-Total

Correlation

Cronbach's

Alpha if Item

Deleted

Family income increases 56.52 122.571 0.912 0.989

Savings increases 56.54 122.805 0.909 0.989

Availability of resources 56.72 115.092 0.905 0.989

Promotional assistance

increases 56.72 117.596 0.845 0.990

Control over income increases 56.74 118.378 0.928 0.988

Children‟s education increases 56.48 121.529 0.920 0.989

Standard of living increases 56.44 119.156 0.911 0.989

Leadership skills increases 56.64 116.064 0.967 0.988

Communication skills increases 56.61 119.316 0.970 0.988

Health awareness increases 56.69 116.652 0.966 0.988

Decision making skills

improves 56.78 118.562 0.922 0.988

Banking operation awareness

increases 56.51 120.336 0.952 0.988

Women‟s right and political

empowerment 56.66 118.731 0.963 0.988

Involvement and status in

community improves 56.49 120.302 0.944 0.988

Employability skills improves 56.66 119.370 0.951 0.988

Cronbach„s Alpha test was performed to check the reliability of questions or items. The above

table„s display several result obtained. The Cronbach„s Alpha test was performed and it resulted

in an overall score of 0.989 indicating internal consistency of the items.


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Conclusion

The study result reveals that, the women empowerment through micro finance among rural

women in Amhara region, Ethiopia.Micro finance is powerful tool to elevating poverty. It

strengthens women‟s financial and economic condition.The researcher used case study method to

find out the women empowerment through micro finance which brings about changes in the

condition of household, their family life and status in the society. Majority of the respondents

benefited through micro finance services and their economic empowerment is improved. Micro

finance institutions are providing micro credit and micro savings to uplift the women

empowerment to elevating poverty.Micro finance should focus on the women empowerment and

rural sustainability.

Recommendations

Providing training related to the small business to the rural communities which strengthen

them for women empowerment.

Guiding women towards managementof work life balance

Motivate women to develop leadership quality in the rural community

Guiding women to use new technologies to strengthen their farming activity

Provide necessary marketing information and create awareness about the market through

extension services.

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Volume 119 No. 16 2018, 2967-2977 · 2018-07-15 · is effective tool to elevating poverty or reducing the poverty. The unavailability of credit facility to the women is the main