Micro credit scheme as a poverty reduction strategy of the Ghanaian Danish community programme in the Tolon-Kumbugu district

Abstract

The study set out to assess the effects of the Ghanaian Danish Community Programme (GDCP) micro credit scheme on the lives of rural women and their dependants. Access to credit to the rural poor, particularly women, to engage in income generating activities was identified as a problem in the Tolon Kumbungu district from a baseline study by the GDCP. The survey was conducted on 264 women in the study area using interview schedules, questionnaires and focus group discussions to collect data from the field, which were coded and analyzed using the SPSS package to derive tables and graphs to present the data. The major finding of the study was that access to micro credit improved the quality of lives of women beneficiaries and their dependants. Most of the women were able to improve on their processing skills that led to increased income and subsequently improved feeding, shelter, and increased school enrolment. The main problems identified with the operations of the scheme were unstable marketing for produce and inaccessibility to productive resources. In addition, most of the women who were weaned off by the GDCP lacked adequate capital to continue with their income generating activities. The study recommended the GDCP to assist women to organize trade fairs to open up marketing avenues as well as expand the scheme to cover men in order to break the socio-cultural problems. Additional loans should be provided to the women groups to enable them purchase more raw materials and processing equipment to improve on production