A SENIOR RESEARCH PAPER ON THE DETERMINANTS OF WOMEN‟S PARTICIPATION IN MICROFINANCE SERVICES IN WOLKITE TOWN

Abstract

In a subsistence agriculture and low income countries like Ethiopia, where smallholder farming dominates the overall national economy, who are facing with shortage of financial resources not only to purchase productive agricultural inputs but they also need to participate in income generating activities. Since 1996 Micro-finance institutions have made significant assistance to the livelihoods of many people through the provision of financial and supporting services to the poor, especially women in rural environments. This study examined the determinants of women’s participation in micro-finance institutions in Wolkite town. For this study data was collected from a total of 256 women of which 120 are participants and 136 of them are non-participants in micro finance service by using simple random sampling method. The analysis of this study was conducted using both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics indicates that participant women’s are less than non- participants. Whereas the estimation results of the logit model indicates out of 18 explanatory variables used 7of them are significant.