Assessing the Role of Financial Inclusion on Poverty Reduction in Ghana; Empirical Evidence from Ahafo Ano North District.

Assessing the Role of Financial Inclusion on Poverty Reduction in Ghana; Empirical Evidence from Ahafo Ano North District.

Edward Adofo-Bosompem

Universal access to financial services is a critical component which drives development since it includes the vulnerable such as low-income household in the society to participate in the governance of the country (Iqbal and Sami, 2017). When people get access to financial services, it transforms their production through investment which eliminates them from poverty. Studies have propounded that the basic activity of the financial service sector is to make credit available to its customers. In this way, customers can increase their economic activities (Iqbal and Sami, 2017). Other evidence has confirmed that there is no country which has succeeded in reducing poverty without the expansion of financial accessibility to its rural populace (Rewilak, 2017). When the rural poor have access to finance, they achieve a large increase in production of various primary activities such as agriculture and this enables them to produce surpluses in food, labour and even financial resources which are the basic necessity of a country’s industrialisation and urbanisation (Villarreal, 2017). However, within the short and medium terms, making finance available has its own adverse impact on the rural populace hence it is important that various measures are put in place to overcome these barriers so that the long-term convergence of productivity among the different sectors of the economy could be realised (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 2015). When this is done, the expectation is a broad spectrum of opportunities which might arise from this progressive change and a renewed mindset of the people to take up challenges.

MBA Finance

September, 2017