Does Microfinance Matter for Women Borrowers? Recent Findings from Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of microfinance on some selected women borrower respondents of Bangladesh, who have been selected through a systematic random survey process. This is a quantitative research based on primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire on sixty women borrowers of the Dhaka City, Bangladesh. This paper finds that microfinance has a highly significant positive impact on the income of these women borrower respondents. Moreover, though microfinance encourages for savings and buying new asset but it has no significant impact on their asset building and savings.Overall, there has been a mixed outcome from this cross-sections data: microfinance has been found as a matter for women borrowers' income increasing aspects, whereas not much effective in increasing savings or building up of assets. Finally the paper recommends some steps to increase effectiveness of microfinance on the women borrowers, including expanding training facilities and lower interest rates particularly for women borrowers.