Compatibility of Financial and Outreach Performance in the Transformed NGO Microfinance Institutions

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International Journal of Business Marketing and Management (IJBMM) Volume 3 Issue 7 July 2018, P.P. 31-44 ISSN: 2456-4559 www.ijbmm.com

Compatibility of Financial and Outreach Performance in the Transformed NGO Microfinance Institutions in Kenya Crispin J. Mbogo1, Dr. Kirori N. Gabriel2, Prof. Tadeo A. Satta3 1

School of Business, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya. 2 School of Business, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya 3 Institute of Finance Management, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract: Microfinance is gradually acknowledged as an effective tool of poverty reduction in the developing countries. This is because microfinance service providers play a significant role of ensuring access to financial services for the poorest segments of the society. The present study links financial performance with outreach to examine mission drift concern in the transformed NGO microfinance institutions in Kenya. The study adopts a quantitative research approach based on unbalanced panel data for 19 years extending from the year 1997 to 2015 obtained from Microfinance Information Exchange (Mix) Market database on six purposively selected transformed NGO microfinance institutions in Kenya. This study employs 2SLS regression of the instrumental variables estimation method for model specification. Results show that operational self-sufficiency increases with both average loan balance per borrower and percent of female borrowers which provides empirical evidence of mission drift concern in the transformed NGO microfinance institutions with regard to average loan balance per borrower. These results suggest that there is a need for the management of the NGO microfinance institutions that are faced with the challenges of capital funding to formulate or adopt policies that will enable utilization of commercial sources of capital funding to enhance financial performance and outreach to more poor people at the bottom of the pyramid. However, management of the institutions have to established mechanismsof ensuring that the option for commercial sources of capital funding including taking deposits from the public does not compromise the mission of reaching out to poorest of the poor.

Keywords: Financial Performance, Microfinance,NGO Microfinance Institutions Transformation,Outreach Performance

I. INTRODUCTION Microfinance is the provision of small scale financial services such as loans, savings, insurance, fund transfers and other financial instruments to lower income individuals excluded from the mainstream financial institutions (Amin, Qin, Rauf&Ahmad, 2017; Lopatta, Tchikov, Jaeschke&Lodhia, 2017) to finance their entrepreneurial activities and advance out of poverty (Quayes &Hasan, 2014; Jha, 2017). Despite of the success records of microfinance institutions and even after being in operation for more than 30 years, there is still a large segment of the poor population facing difficulties to access financial services (Hishigsuren, 2007; Bogan, Johnson & Mhlanga, 2007;Armendรกriz et al., 2009; Kar, 2011; Bogan, 2012; Adu, Anarfi&Poku, 2014; Ledgerwood, 2014). Studies estimate that over 500 million poor clients all over the world demand financial services (Helms, 2006). However, by the end of 2010 microfinance institutions were reported to have reached over 200 million poor clients, women forming 82.3% (Maes& Reed, 2012). In most of the developing countries, microfinance institutions serve 5-20% of the poor population (Hubka& Zaidi, 2005). Empirical evidence show that more than 50% of the poor population in Kenya has no access to traditional banking system (Ali, 2015). The Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) reports that Kenyan commercial banks serve no more than 4 million people, leaving the rest of the economically active population to depend on risky and expensive informal and semi-formal sources of finance (Ali, 2015). Therefore, there is still a need for microfinance to significantly scale up to achieve its potential by reaching out to billions of people, globally, who are currently not served by the sector (Herrmann-

International Journal of Business Marketing and Management (IJBMM)

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