IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/oabmxx/v8y2021i1p1930499.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An assessment of over-indebtedness among microfinance institutions’ borrowers: The Tanzanian perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Pendo Shukrani Kasoga
  • Amani Gration Tegambwage

Abstract

The introduction of microfinance institutions is viewed as the best alternative source of financial services for low-income earners as a means to raise their income and reduce poverty. However, empirical research has indicated that the majority of microfinance institutions’ borrowers are over-indebted. Over-indebtedness has negative consequences for debtors, creditors, and for the economy as a whole. Since over-indebtedness is a context-specific phenomenon, it lacks universally accepted indicators. This study aims to validate indicators of over-indebtedness and examine the situation of over-indebtedness among micro-borrowers in the context of Tanzania. A survey of 535 micro-borrowers was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive, thematic, and logistic regression techniques were employed for data analysis. Findings show that debt-to-income ratio, multiple borrowing, and delinquency have a positive and significant effect on over-indebtedness. Further, findings indicate that over-indebted micro-borrowers in Tanzania spend 75% or more of monthly income on servicing debts; are in the state of delinquency; are unable to meet basic needs due to loan repayment expenditure, have three or more credit commitments, and are in delinquency. To reduce over-indebtedness and hence poverty among micro-borrowers, microfinance institutions are advised to monitor debt levels among micro-borrowers, and reschedule loan repayment plans to already over-indebted micro-borrowers.

Suggested Citation

  • Pendo Shukrani Kasoga & Amani Gration Tegambwage, 2021. "An assessment of over-indebtedness among microfinance institutions’ borrowers: The Tanzanian perspective," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1930499-193, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:oabmxx:v:8:y:2021:i:1:p:1930499
    DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2021.1930499
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/23311975.2021.1930499
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/23311975.2021.1930499?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Benyan Tan & Yingzhu Guo & Yan Wu, 2024. "The influence and mechanism of female-headed households on household debt risk: empirical evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Ryszard Kowalski & Agnieszka Strzelecka & Agnieszka Wałęga & Grzegorz Wałęga, 2023. "Do Children Matter to the Household Debt Burden?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1007-1022, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:oabmxx:v:8:y:2021:i:1:p:1930499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://cogentoa.tandfonline.com/OABM20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.