Does Micro Finance Reduce Poverty among Women Entrepreneurs in South-South Nigeria? Evidence from Propensity Score Matching Technique

This paper examined the role of microfinance services on poverty reduction among women entrepreneurs in South-south Nigeria. A composed sample of four hundred respondents randomly selected from eight local governments in Bayelsa and Delta States made up the sample while logit model, propensity score matching and instrumental variable methods were used to achieve the study objectives. The results of the study show that access to microfinance has a positive impact on the per capita expenditure of women entrepreneurs. Also, places of residence as well as the size of households have negative impact on per capita expenditure while education level has positive impact on per capita expenditure. The authors recommend that policies should be strengthened to make access to microfinance less difficult for women. Also, government should do well to provide enabling policies that create friendly environment for the microfinance institutions operating in Nigeria so as to reduce their operation cost and by implication reduce the cost of borrowing. Key words: Microfinance, Women Entrepreneurs, Poverty reduction, Propensity Score Matchin