Nexus between Financial Inclusion, Gender and Agriculture Productivity in Ghana

Abstract

The concept of infrastructure, education, availability, usage, affordability, inequality, and accessibility of funds remains useful in agricultural productivity. Nonetheless, the most instrumental challenge of rural farmers is the factors mentioned above, which hindered the growth of agricultural productivity over the years in Africa. As a result, this study examines the nexus between gender, financial inclusion, and Agriculture Productivity in Ghana. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design with secondary data sources from the Ghana Living Statistical Survey 7. Data were analyzed using STATA version 15. The objective of the study was analyzed using the ordinary least square method. The study revealed that financial inclusion has a significant positive relationship with agricultural productivity. Also, factors such as age, farm size, household size, ownership of land have a positive impact on agricultural productivity coupled with the low level of education. Results indicate that farm size, equipment ownership, expenditure on inputs, age, marital status, land ownership, household size, and education level are determinants of agricultural productivity. The paper revealed that male farmers are more financially inclusive than their female counterparts. As a result, the study concluded that there are strong links between gender, financial inclusion, and agricultural productivity. The government and other stakeholders in Ghana need legal and institutional transformations that will help meet the needs and constraints of females, especially in the rural communities, to broaden the scope of financial services hence making them financially inclusive.

Examining financial inclusion-agricultural productivity connection in south asian countries: evidence from FMOLS and DOLS approaches

“…First, a positive correlation is present between agricultural productivity with carbon dioxide (0.57), labour (0.29), and financial inclusion (0.46). Particularly, the positive relationship between financial inclusion and agricultural productivity (also observed in other studies like Laha, Kuri 2014; Fowowe 2020; Atakli, Agbenyo, 2020) indicates that access to banking services leads to an increase in agricultural productivity in South Asian countries. Second, other explanatory variables like trade openness, physical capital and interest rate are negatively correlated with agricultural productivity.…”

“…He used simple panel data estimation and his empirical results reveal that FI has a positive influence on agricultural productivity. Atakli, Agbenyo (2020) used Ghana Living Statistical Survey data and multiple regression models. Their results confirm that FI has a positive association with agricultural productivity.…”

“…Moreover, financial inclusion has also been one of the instruments in reducing poverty over time (Gurley, Shaw, 1955;Goldsmith, 1969;Cull et al, 2014;Park, Mercado, 2015;Omar, Inaba, 2020). The effect of financial inclusion on agriculture is also well acclaimed by some studies (Laha, Kuri, 2014;Fowowe, 2020;Atakli, Agbenyo, 2020). The availability of finance leads to increased agricultural productivity and higher incomes for farmers.…”

Financial Technologies and Financial Inclusion in Emerging Economies: Perspectives from Nigeria

“…However, they posited that growth in these channels is hindered by trust and poor documentation issues as well as distance to the nearest financial institution. Irrespective of the measuring yardsticks selected, for Africa and most developing economies, it has been found that the choice of indices to use is heavily influenced by factors such as age, gender, household size, socio-cultural characteristics, education level and internet access [1,[41][42][43] (Zhang and Posso, 2019). The researchers found that despite increases in levels and depth of financial literacy, these factors often significantly influence the decision-making efforts of the vulnerable and financially disadvantaged.…”

“…However, following the revision of the Strategy in 2018 and licensing of new mobile money players, the value of mobile money transactions grew significantly to N5.09 trillion and N9. 43 was as of August 2020 implying that the wallet share is likely to further increase when the full year position is subsequently made available. This therefore underscores the need to continue to develop this subsector as a veritable avenue in pushing the financial inclusion drive.…”