Abstract
The importance of microfinance to developmental objectives relating to access to financial services, poverty alleviation, inequality reduction, and providing a solution to financial market failure among others cannot be over-emphasized. Academic literature confirming this is abundant. However the sustainability of these institutions has been a major concern in the recent past. This study seeks to determine what drives financial sustainability of microfinance institutions within the Ghanaian context. The study follows a quantitative approach using secondary data sourced from MIX Market. An unbalanced panel dataset from 25 Ghanaian microfinance institutions over six years (2006-2011) was used. Econometric results found that sustainability of microfinance institutions is positively related to the yield on gross portfolio and administrative efficiency ratio and negatively related to staff productivity. The direction of the staff productivity is puzzling and calls for more in-depth research to understand the source of the negative relationship between high level of staff productivity and financial sustainability.
Keywords
References
- Adongo, J. & Stork, C. (2005).Factors Influencing the Financial Sustainability of Selected Microfinance Institutions in Namibia. The Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit.
- Anyanwu, C. M. (2004). Microfinance Institutions in Nigeria: Policy, Practice and Potentials. Paper Presented at the G24 Workshop on Constraints to Growth in Sub Saharan Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, November 29–30.1–29.
- Aveh, K., Krah, R. Y. & Dadzie, P. (2013). Business Strategy and Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions in Ghana. Research Journal of Finance and Accounting , 4(10), 17–27.
- Ayayi, A. G. & Sene, M. (2010). What drives microfinance institutions. The Journal of Developing Areas , 44(1), 303–324.
- Bank of Ghana. (2007). A Note on Microfinance in Ghana.
- Barr, M. (2005). Microfinance and Financial Development. Michigan Journal of International Law, 26, 271– 296.
- Bogan, V., Johnson, W. & Mlanga, N. (2007). Does Capital Structure Affect the Financial Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions? [Online]. Available: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/neudc07/docs/neudc07_poster_bogan.pdf[2013, September 25].
- Brau, J. C. & Woller, G. M. (2004). Microfinance: A comprehensive review of the existing literature. Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance , 9(1), 1–25.
- Cameron, A. C. & Trivedi, P. K. (2010). Micro econometrics Using Stata. Texas: Stata Press.
- Demirguc-Kunt, A. & Klapper, L. (2012).Measuring Financial Inclusion: The Global Findex Database. Policy Research Working Paper 6025.The World Bank.
- Guntz, S. (2011). Sustainability and profitability of microfinance institutions.
- Hartarska, V. & Nadolnyak, D. (2007). Do regulated microfinance institutions achieve better sustainability and outreach? Cross-country evidence. Applied Economics , 39(10), 1207–1222.
- Hedges, L. V. & Vevea, J. L. (1998). Fixed- and Random-Effects Models in Meta-Analysis. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 486–504.
- Hermes, N. & Lensink, R. (2007). The empirics of microfinance: what do we know? The Economic Journal , 117(517), 1–10.
- Kimando, L. N., Kihoro, J. M. & Njogu, G. W. (2012). Factors Influencing the Sustainability of Micro-Finance Institutions in Murang’a Municipality. International Journal of Business and Commerce , 1(10), 21– 45.
- Kinde, B. A. (2012). Financial Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Ethiopia. European Journal of Business and Management , 4(15), 1–11.
- Ledgerwood, J. (1999). The Microfinance Handbook. Washington DC: The World Bank.
- Lafourcade, A., Isern, J., Mwangi, P. & Brown, M. (2005).Overview of the Outreach and Financial Performance of Microfinance Institutions in Africa. Micro Banking Bulletin.
- Lucarelli, B. (2005). Microcredit: A cautionary tale. Journal of Contemporary Asia , 35(1), 78–86.
- Marwa, N. W. & Aziakpono, M. J. (2015). Financial Sustainability of Saving and Credit Cooperatives: Evidence from Tanzania. International Journal of Socio-Economics, 42(6).
- Navajas, S., Schreiner, M., Meyer, R. L., Gonzalez-Vega, C. & Rodriguez-Meza, J. (2000). Microcredit and the poorest of the poor: theory and evidence from Bolivia. World Development , 28(2), 333–346.
- Rai, A. K. (2012). Factors Affecting Financial Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development , 3(6), 1–10.
- Rao, D. S. (2012).Credit Market Failures and Microfinance. International Journal of Research in Management & Technology , 2(3), 294–297.
- Richman, D. & Fred, A. K. (2010). Gender Composition, Competition and Sustainability of Micro Finance in Africa: Evidence from Ghana’s Microfinance Industry. [Online]. Available: http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/conferences/2011-EDiA/papers/175-Dzene.pdf [2014, June 8].
- Robinson, M. S. (2001). The Microfinance Revolution. Washington DC: The World Bank.
- Schreiner, M. (2000). Why’s Donors Can Help the Evolution of Sustainable Microfinance Organizations. Savings and Development , 24(4), 423–437.
- Stiglitz, J. E. & Weiss, A. (1989). Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information. The American Economic Review , 71(3), 393–410.
- Tehulu, T. A. (2013). Determinants of Financial Sustainability of Microfinance Institutions in East Africa. European Journal of Business and Management , 5(17), 152–158.
- VonStauffenberg, D. (2003). Performance Indicators of Microfinance Institutions. Micro-Rate.
- Woller, G. M., Dunford, C. & Woodworth, W. (1999). Where to Microfinance. International Journal of Economic Development , 1(1), 29–64.
- Woller, G. & Schreiner, M. (2001). Poverty lending, financial self-sufficiency and the six aspects of outreach. [Online]. Available: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document1.9.28981/50.pdf[2013, September 28]. Acknowledgment: The authors of this paper acknowledge the constructive com ments from anon ymous reviewers from Economic Research Southern Africa and Journal of Economics and Behavioural Studies respectively. In additi on, authors ackn owledge the fina ncial support from Economic Research So uthern Africa .
Downloads
No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.
How to Cite
Share this article
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Gershwin Long, Nyankomo Marwa (Author)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
Keywords
Section
Published
Submissions
Have research to publish? Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies welcomes submissions.
Make a Submission