ABSTRACT

The overall purpose of the study was to assess the operations and effect of microfinance scheme of the National Special Programme on Food Security on Livelihoods and Wellbeing in Akwa Ibom State., Nigeria. Specifically, the study estimated tile effect of the programme on per capita expenditure of beneficiaries and to compare them with those of non-beneficiaries, it analyze tile perception of the beneficiaries Oil the effect of NSPFS microfinance on their socio-economic lives, identified the major constraints to effective participation and performance of beneficiaries and identify factors affecting timely repayment of the loan. The study was carried out in Akwa ibom State, Nigeria. Two project sites out of the three project sites in Akwa Ibom State was randomly selected, namely; Ukana Uwa site in Essien Udim Local Government Area of lkot Ekpene, Senatorial District and Ikot Essien in Nsit Atai Local Government Areea of Uyo Senatorial District. One hundred and twenty (120) project beneficiaries and one hundred and twenty (120) no project beneficiaries were sampled from each local government area. A total of two hundred and forty (240) respondents made up of one hundred and twenty (120) beneficiaries and one hundred and twenty (120) non-beneficiaries were used in the study. Copies of questionnaire and interview schedules were used as data collection instrument. Percentages, Diopellslty score, matching technique, mean, standard deviation, factor analysis, and t-test were used in the analysis of data. Results showed that a greater proportion (92.3% and 77.5%) of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were males, married, and had large households and mean age of 48.7 and 51.2 years respectively. Majority (75.0%) of the beneficiaries were crop farmers while 25.0% were livestock farmers. Cassava, maize, and groundnut were the major crops grown ill the project sites by the beneficiaries. Majority (55.0%) of tile beneficiaries defaulted in paying back loaiis received and they attributed this to problems like untimely loan disbursement, poor marketing/poor sales, high cost of inputs and insufficient loan. The beneficiaries perceived great levels of impact on their social- economic lives as a result NSPFS in areas like increased crop output, increased level of social interaction, improvement in nutritional status, among others. The result however showed that several factors constrained the effective performance of NSPFS in the study areas; these factors were grouped into logistic problems, management problems. technical problems and financial limitations. Strategies suggested for effective performance of the programme included early disbursement of loans, provision of sufficient loan; adequate/effective monitoring of tile programme, creation of marketing channels; and provision of farm inputs. Tile findings further revealed that there was no significant difference in the perception of the beneficiaries who have received credit lucidities once and beneficiaries who have received credit facilities at least. twice on the impact of NSPFS on their socio-economic lives only as pertaining to better marketing strategies. The impact of NSPFS Oil tile beneficiaries was ascertained using propensity score matching technique result showed the average gain in expenditure per capita by the beneficiaries, using nearest neighbour matches to be N8,750.58 with a significant t-value of 2.85 at p 0.05. It is reconciled that before the commencement of another phase of the programme, government prioritize constraints identified in this study and look for I possibly solutions if the M.DGs by 2015 should be realized.