The contribution of micro finance institutions to the growth of Smallholder Farmers and Fishermen (SFF): A case study of selected SFF in the Pemba Island

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dc.contributor.authorMbarouk, Ali Mohamed
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-05T07:46:01Z
dc.date.available2024-07-05T07:46:01Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.descriptionA dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Degree of Master of Science in Accounting and Finance (Msc. A & F) of Mzumbe University
dc.description.abstractSmallholder farmers and fishermen continue to fail from the problems that microfinance institutions claim to offer solutions to. According to the 2002, Population and Housing Census of Tanzania indicate that three out of five SME businesses (including smallholder farmers and fishermen (SFF)) fail within the first few months of operation. A gap exists in finding out the contribution of Microfinance institutions to the growth of SFF. The study was expected to establish the practical role of perceived solutions provided by microfinance institutions and how this contributes to the growth of smallholder farmers and fishermen (SFF)in Pemba Island. The study was guided by three major objectives; Assessing the lending technology adopted by MFIs in accessing credit services to smallholder farmers and fishermen; Determining factors that influence credit accessibility by smallholder farmers and fishermen; and Determining the challenges preventing growth of the smallholder farmers and fishermen (SFF) A survey design study was used to conduct an investigation and achieve study objectives. Data was gathered from managers of MFI institutions as well as SFF within Pemba Island in rural and urban area. Stratified sampling was adopted to select 20cooperative societies and five microfinance institutions to participate in the study. Data was collected via a questionnaire. Presentation of data was done in tables and interpretation made based on specific research objectives. The study findings indicated that the majority of the technology used is group lending technology (65.71%). Group is formed by members who know each other very well and have some social ties which act as collateral for the loans. Also microfinance institutions provide a series of products and services that influence the credit accessibility, that include having small-scale business accounts, business management training, marketing services and financial literacy skills. Out of these, small-scale business loans are the major product offered by Microfinance institutions as indicated by 37.14% of the respondents while business management skills are the least offered represented by 11.43%. This is because most of the beneficiaries (borrowers) have low income generation therefore they prefer to take small loan to enable them to repay on time and have low financial literacy. The challenges preventing SFF from growth and development are lack of enough finances, financial management skills, poor financial literacy and lack of market for products. Among these challenges, lack of finances is most common challenge preventing growth and development of their businesses. These challenges explain why some smallholder farmers and fishermen at the same level while others have scaled down their operations. The study recommends MFIs have to create environment to SFF to access individual lending by reducing some conditions such as lowering interest rate and providing uncollateralized loans. Also MFIs have to plan for seminars and workshops to train the SFF on financial literacy, management skills and facilitation of ICT use. Furthermore, MFIs should develop a regular needs assessment among SFF so as to provide relevant products. A related study can be done to analyze the economic factors affecting microfinance institutions in financing SFF.A similar study on the Contribution of Microfinance Institutions to the growth of Smallholder farmers and fishermen in other towns apart from Pemba Island can be done. It is very important to conduct the same around Zanzibar comprises both Pemba and Unguja Island.
dc.description.sponsorshipPrivate
dc.identifier.citationAPA
dc.identifier.urihttps://scholar.mzumbe.ac.tz/handle/123456789/948
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMzumbe University
dc.subjectFinancial literacy-small fishermen
dc.subjectUncollateralized loans-Smallholder farmers
dc.subjectMicrofinance institutions-SME
dc.subjectMicrofinance institutions-household income
dc.subjectMarketing strategies-smallholder farmers
dc.titleThe contribution of micro finance institutions to the growth of Smallholder Farmers and Fishermen (SFF): A case study of selected SFF in the Pemba Island
dc.typeThesis
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