Micro-credit requirement, acquisition and repayment by vegetable farmers in Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Abstract The study investigated micro-credit administration among vegetable farmers in Niger State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was administered on 240 respondents to collect the data analysed using descriptive statistics, linear and multinomial logit regressions to examine factors that determine access and repayment of credit. The findings showed that the respondents had average family size of five, average age of 41 years, average farm size of 2.5ha and low educational background. About 62.5% of the respondents obtained their credit from informal sources while 37.5% patronized formal sources. The study shows that mean disbursement was N54,650 as against mean application of N61,079. Age, gender, household size, interest rate and educational level where among the factors that influence repayment capacity of vegetable farmers. It is recommended that microfinance institutions should extend credit to farmers based on need and not solely based on their technical requirements so as to ensure that the farmers are able to achieve their farm targets and hence pay back the loan.