The role of microfinance in promoting women's economic empowerment in Nigeria: an analysis of income and non-income dimensions

Purpose This article examines the role of microfinance banks (MFBs) in promoting women's economic empowerment from income and non-income dimensions. Design/methodology/approach For the non-income dimension of economic empowerment, an index was created using control over resources, contribution to household expenditure and financial decision-making ability. Adopting a multi-stage sampling technique, a structured questionnaire was used to gather data on microfinance and women's economic empowerment variables from 400 women clients of 29 MFBs in Kwara State, Nigeria, which were analyzed using standard and Generalized Ordered Logit Regressions. Findings Results reveal that loan, savings, length of banking and training wield positive and statistically significant influence on the income dimension, while savings, training, insurance and loan frequency exert a significant influence on the non-income dimension. Training is, however, revealed to be the most effective tool, while insurance is the least effective, as it wields a negative effect in both models. Further findings from the robustness test further confirm that the effect of MFB variables on economic empowerment is heterogeneous, differing significantly in magnitude and direction across various thresholds of both dimensions. Originality/value This research is novel as it approaches economic empowerment from both income and non-income dimensions. This contributes to knowledge by providing an in-depth analysis of women's economic empowerment beyond income to the core, practical and pressing issues of financial control, economic decision-making and economic participation. This study also advances literature by disaggregating the effects of microfinance across different empowerment thresholds. By disaggregating the analysis, it unearths heterogeneous effects of microfinance on women's income and non-income economic empowerment outcomes. This explains the inconsistencies in literature, as the impact of microfinance varies depending on the dimension and level of empowerment under consideration.