An assessment of the effects of ‘SUSU’ scheme on the economic empowerment of market women in Kumasi, Ghana.
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Date
October, 2010.
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Abstract
The study sought to assess the effect of the ‘susu’ scheme on the economic empowerment of market women with cross-sectional data randomly collected from eighty-two (82) market women in the Kumasi metropolis using a questionnaire administered through personal interviews. The data obtained were analyzed using tables, paired sample T-test and multi-regression technique. Among the key findings of the study are that the ‘susu’ scheme has had a significant impact on the economic empowerment of the market women interviewed; that the number of years of being a ‘susu’ contributor and the amount contributed per day do not explain the variability in the economic empowerment level of a market woman; that the majority of the market women in the study have seen the benefit of the ‘susu’ scheme and; and that the scheme has helped the market women to build up cash savings.
The conclusion of the study is that the ‘susu’ scheme has made a significant impact on the economic empowerment of market women in the Kumasi metropolis. In addition, the study concludes that it is not advisable to predict the empowerment level of a ‘susu’-contributing market woman in the Kumasi metropolis by the number of years she has been contributing to the ‘susu’ scheme and the amount she contributes daily.
Among the recommendations made by the study are that ‘susu’ institutions in Ghana should scrap their ‘no-loan policy’; that the government of Ghana should embark on a comprehensive programme of re-capitalising the rural banks, credit unions, and other microfinance financial institutions that practice microfinance; that policy makers should design microfinance sensitization programme aimed at encouraging women, especially the financially-excluded ones, to join the ‘susu’ scheme; and that future studies should focus on getting samples from other regions so that a comprehensive assessment of the ‘susu’ scheme on the economic empowerment of market women could be made.
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A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Development Policy and Planning on