Improvement on the well-being of women with disabilities upon accessing LGA loan in Arusha. A case of Arusha city council

Local government authorities in Tanzania play a greater role in improving the living standards of people in communities, including women with disabilities.LGA loans were introduced by local government authorities as a special loan package for people with disabilities, where women with disabilities were included.This study focuses on exploring areas of improvement for women with disabilities after accessing LGA loans at Arusha City Council.A sample of 107 respondents, mainly women with disabilities, were involved in this study.In the study, key informant interviews were conducted with ward community development officers, group coordinators, and leaders of people with disabilities.Again, a mixed-methods questionnaire and a structured interview were employed as tools for data collection.With the help of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), descriptive statistics were used, and data were presented in tabular form.Findings revealed that women with disabilities were highly improved on income aspects compared to health and education.Consequently, the study offers several recommendations whereby local government authorities should provide comprehensive training in group loans to the targeted beneficiaries, including women with disabilities.Also, women with disabilities should be very careful about the character of each member before acceptance into a group for further steps in accessing loans.