MICROFINANCE BANKS’ CREDIT ACCESSIBILITY AND POVERTY REDUCTION IN NIGERIA

The study investigated the effect of access to microfinance banks’ credit accessibility (MCA) on poverty reduction in Nigeria. The regressand is poverty reduction proxied by GDP per capita growth rate as a measure of standards of living, while the regressors are deposits (DEP), micro-loans and advances (LAD). The study gathered (sourced) from the annual bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for 16 years from 2000 to 2021. The Ordinary Least Square regression technique was employed for data analyses. The results showed that Loans and advances of microfinance banks have insignificant negative effect poverty reduction. Microfinance banks’ deposits have increased poverty minimally. The study thus concluded that Microfinance banks intermediation is not effective for poverty reduction/alleviation in Nigeria. Keywords: Micro Financing, Poverty Reduction, Bank Intermediation, Nigeria