Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 21

THESIS PRESENTATION ON THE TOPIC

CONTRIBUTION OF MICROCREDIT TO
PRODUCTION OF ARTISANAL FISHERFOLKS IN
SEKONDI-TAKORADI METROPOLIS

BY
DANIEL ODEI OKYERE
(MASTER OF COMMERCE DEGREE IN FINANCE)

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION
Introduction
Statement of the problem
Objectives of the study
Research questions
Delimitation of the study
Methodology
Main findings of the study
Recommendations

Introduction
Fishing

activities

in

Sekondi-Takoradi

Metropolitan

Assembly (STMA)
Financing of fishing activities
Characteristics of fishing communities in the STMA
Microfinance operations in the fishing communities
Attitude of artisanal fishers toward microcredit

Statement of the problem


Inadequate supply of credit is an important constraint to
enhancing production in many developing countries.
Even though a lot of microfinance institutions have been
established to address the problem of inadequate funding in
Ghana, its impact has not been well felt as they ought to be
The ability of microfinance programmes such as microcredit
to reach fishers is limited because these microfinance
institutions argue that the fishers lack the necessary skills to
turn around the credit granted to them and this increases the
risk of default on the part of these artisanal fishers

Contd
Despite the fact that microfinance institutions have been
established in Ghana, a lot of fisherfolks are still ignorant of
the procedures to be followed to access credit from these
microfinance institutions.
Fear of losing control of businesses to these microfinance
institutions
There is the need to find a pragmatic approach to ensuring a
microcredit programme that will guarantee continuous
financial assistance to fishers in order to improve the artisanal
fisheries sector.

Objectives of the study


The purpose of this study was to examine how microcredit
could improve production of artisanal fishers in the SekondiTakoradi Metropolis.

In order to facilitate the investigation, four specific research


questions were formulated to tackle the research objective.

Research questions
How is microcredit important to artisanal fishers?
What is the impact of microfinance on the production
outcomes on artisanal fishers?
How are microcredits utilised by artisanal fishers to enhance
production?
What constraints are there in accessing credit from
microfinance institutions?

Significance of the study


The study will assist businesses, especially fisherfolks about
the procedure to be followed in order to easily access loans to
help develop their businesses.
Microfinance institutions can use this research to better
understand the activities of fishing, especially artisanal fishing
in order to grant them credit without problems.
The government, through BoG can use this research to design
policies that will enhance access to credit by businesses,
especially fisherfolks from microfinance finance institutions.

Delimitation of the study


The study was delimited to artisanal fishers in the Amanful and
New Takoradi communities within the STM who are registered
customers of the Lower Pra Rural Bank Limited.
The study also focused on the various microcredit programmes
and packages design by Lower Pra Rural Bank Limited.
The study was further delimited to the contribution the banks
microcredit packages have on the production level of the
artisanal fisherfolks in the STM.

Conceptual framework
Artisanal fisherfolks'
behaviours and
practices over a
period of time

Enhanced
behaviours and
practices over a
period of time

Microcredit interventions

Source: Adapted from Hulme (1997).

Enhanced
production

Methodology
A case study research design was employed for this study.
The population of the study was all registered artisanal
fisherfolks of Lower Pra Rural Bank within the SekondiTakoradi Metropolis.
The study population also included operation managers of the
bank who can provide the needed information for the study.
A sample size of 132 was selected for the study using simple
random sampling procedure.
According to the Universal Accreditation Board (2003), 132
will be a perfect representation of a population of 200 hence the
choice of 132 registered fisherfolks as the sample size was
appropriate.

Contd
The catchment communities of the artisanal fisherfolks were
identified purposively (thus communities with 20 or more
registered fishermen) while the lottery method of simple
random sampling was used to select two communities within
the catchment of Sekondi-Takoradi thus, New Takoradi and
New Amanful.
With regard to the individual registered fisherfolks, the lottery
method of simple random sampling technique was used to
select them.

Contd
Furthermore, the purposive sampling procedure was used to
handpick Lower-Pra Rural Bank Limited because amongst the
rural banks in Sekondi-Takoradi, it was the only bank which
had a policy of devoting at least 60 percent of their
microcredit to artisanal fisherfolks.
The operations manager of the bank who is in charge of
credits was selected purposively because he is an expert in the
field of microcredit and he is responsible for assessing the
artisanal fishers before microcredits are granted to them.

Contd
Both quantitative and qualitative data were were collected.
Both interview schedule (artisanal fisherfolks) and
questionnaire (operations manager of Lower Pra Rural Bank)
were used to elicit data from the respondents
Frequency, percentage and cross tabulations were used to
analyse the quantitative data. With regard to the qualitative
data, the responses were first put into various themes based
on the research objectives of the study. Item by item
procedure was used to analyse the data.

Main findings of the study


Preponderance number of the respondents admitted that
microfinance facility available to them is important with regard
to their fishing business activities. This is so since it help boost
their capacity to invest or expand their fishing business.
Also, the rate of repayment among the borrowers from the
community is quite high, since the artisanal fishers perceive it
as very important to their survival in the fishing business.
The microcredit or loans provided by LPRB Limited help the
artisanal fishers establish a cash economy by providing basic
financial understanding and building credit standing for
individual artisanal fishers.

Contd
The banks operations manager added that the microcredit and
deposit services provided by the bank strengthen social and
labour resources for the artisanal fishers, thus improving the
infrastructure on a local level, obtain new technology, thereby
expanding production.
Microcredit packages of LPRB Limited have helped reduce their
level of poverty.
Due to microcredit packages of the bank, artisanal fishers are
able to expand their fishing business which in turn increases their
profit. This has made it possible for them to be able to pay their
children school fees on time and to give them quality education.

Contd
Microcredit packages available to the artisanal fishers has
resulted in improving artisanal fishers life chances since they
can now pay for better health care, quality education and decent
accommodation.
Access to microcredit allows artisanal fishers to purchase new
and modern inputs, spare parts, fish nets, fishing gears, and
outboard motors. These changes and improvement in the inputs
help to increase their fish harvest and income as a whole.
Majority of the respondents were of the view that inadequate
funding is one of the challenges they are facing in their fishing
business.

Contd
The major challenges they face as artisanal fishers are high cost
of fishing inputs such as nets, outboard motors and spare parts,
high cost of premix fuel and use of light and other chemicals for
catching small fishes.
Majority of the artisanal fishers further asserted that some of the
challenges they face in accessing microcredit is the bureaucracy
of the loan process in terms of documentations, the request for
guarantors and the delays in processing loans.
The operations manager also stated that the challenges the bank
faces when it grant microcredit to artisanal fisher are that: the
repayment of the loans are mostly irregular due to irregularity
of the fishing business.

Recommendations
Based on the key findings and conclusions of this study, it is
recommended to the operations manager that he should request
management of Lower Pra Rural Bank Limited to ensure that
the bank continuously supervises, monitor and follow up their
clients adequately and closely to avoid diversion of funds, to
improve on customer care and not to rely on groups only but
also consider individuals on merit as well.
The artisanal fishers in the communities are also advised to
ensure that they use the loan money for intended purposes only
and avoid money misuse and diversion of funds. Also, they get
more investment opportunities from family members or friends
instead of the bank.

Contd
The reasons for the statutory limits on collateralisation of
governments borrowing against the projected petroleum
revenue are not circumvented to instil transparent and conform
to international best practice.
The limit on mandatory savings and budgetary support in the
management of petroleum revenue are strictly obeyed by all
especially the executive arm of government as indicated in the
Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011, (Act 815).

THANK YOU

Вам также может понравиться