Impact of Micro Finance Through Amhara Credit and Saving Institution on Women Economic Empowerment

Abstract

Women economic empowerment is one of the strategies aimed at enabling women in decision making, increment in income and asset ownership. The purpose of the study was to analyze the impact of micro finance through Amhara credit and saving institution on women economic empowerment. Qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used to obtain a reliable data. Data were derived from a questionnaire of a sample of 346 women clients of Amhara Credit and Saving Institution. In addition, six focus group discussions were conducted involving 48 women while in depth interviews were carried out with 6 micro finance leaders, and experts. Multiple Regressions, Independent t-test, Analysis of variance were employed for data analysis. The Regression result revealed that age, marital status, education level, credit amount, number of training have significant impact on women’s economic empowerment. However, numbers of household and previous business experience have insignificant impact on women economic empowerment in the study areas. Independent t-test result revealed that Amhara credit and saving institution has significant impact on women’s economic empowerment as measured by the increased participation of women in resource controlling, improved household income, asset possession levels, and saving.