ABSTRACT

The study is on the microcredit use and performance of ginger processors and marketers in southeast Nigeria. The objectives achieved include, the socioeconomic characteristics of ginger processors and marketers, examination of the performance of the ginger processors and marketers, evaluation of the demand and supply of microcredit use of the ginger processors and marketers, estimation of the determinants of microcredit use among ginger processors and marketers, assessment of the determinants of performance of microcredit using and non using ginger processors and marketers, determination of the effect of microcredit use on performance of ginger processors and marketers, and assessment of the constraints of ginger processors and marketers to microcredit use. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used in selecting the locations and 576 respondents for the study. Primary data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire for both ginger processors and marketers differently. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, marketing costs and net returns analyses, marketing margin, and marketing efficiency models, multiple regression techniques, the Heckman selectivity model and simple regression analysis. The result shows that 71.43% and 79% (majority) of the ginger processors were females who used microcredit and non microcredit users respectively. Also, the result showed that the majority of ginger marketers were females (62.0% and 75.0% for non-microcredit and microcredit users respectively). The mean age of non-microcredit users and users of ginger processing were 43.50 and 43.38 years respectively, and the mean age of non-microcredit users and users of ginger marketing was 43.5 years and 43.71 years respectively. The net return of ginger processors of non microcredit using and using were N4, 805.7 and N13636.5respectively. However, for the marketers of non microcredit using and using were N 24002.23 and N49, 580 respectively. The regression results for the estimated microcredit demand and supply function of ginger processors using the two-stage least square regression (2SLS) procedure  showed that the estimated                    F-Statistic were highly statistically significant at the 1% level of significance with a goodness of fit R² values of 0.9753 and 0.9699 respectively. Similarly, the microcredit demand and supply functions of ginger marketers showed high R² value of 0.9855 and 0.9964 respectively. The study recommended that microcredit facilities should be made available to both ginger processors and marketers at affordable interest rates. Also, establishment of more microcredit banks in the study area should be encouraged.