Does Microfinance Operation Have Effect on Poverty Alleviation in Nigeria?

It is an established fact that if Development Finance Institutions like Microfinance Institutions are accessible to the poor, they would enhance their productivity and capability to procure assets and necessary facilities that can encourage productive investment. This will therefore reduce poverty as it is clear that the poor does not lack initiative but only constrained by finance. One of the economic measures embarked upon by the governments in most part of the world to combat poverty is the microcredit through microfinance banks. Microfinance has been used on several occasions to reduce poverty, in rural areas in particular which are believed to harbour the poorest people in the world. It is an important aid that can improve the economic performance of the poor. In Nigeria, government had made concerted efforts to alleviate poverty, but poverty still remains pervasive and widespread especially in the rural communities. This paper examines the policies and programmes of poverty alleviation in Nigeria with respect to the effect of microfinance. Exploratory method was used to review the relevant literature in order to discover the extent of the impact of these programmes on the targeted poor masses. The authors conclude that in order to make Microfinance achieve the poverty alleviation objective in Nigeria, the Government would have to provide basic infrastructural and social facilities