Authors : Chika Oguonu and Christian Ezeibe
Abstract: The informal productive sub-sector encompasses all economic activities involving the production of tangible goods, small scale agricultural production, mining and quarrying. The sector provides productive outlets for a large number of people to be self employed. Despite that about 70% of Nigeria’s population live in rural areas and involve in agricultural production to survive, government efforts to promote low/free interest credit for farmers has been marginal. This study examined the factors that influence accessibility to credit by smallholder farmers in Nigeria. The logit regression was used to determine the factors that influence an individual’s ability to secure loan from formal and informal financial institutions. The study concludes that there is a significant difference between the smallholder farmers access to credit in terms of formal and informal sources as classified, according to the states in the geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
Chika Oguonu and Christian Ezeibe, 2014. Access to Formal and Informal Credits by Smallholder Farmers in Nigeria. The Social Sciences, 9: 476-481.