Evaluating the Impact of Financial Inclusion on Income Optimization in Farm Enterprises

Popoola Prince

Background and Objective: There exists some unknown and yet unmeasured empirical endogenous financial inclusivity scoring boosters with unique peculiarities to specific sectoral or sub-sectoral applicants. This study hereby aimed at unraveling the extent and roles of financial inclusion in optimizing farm enterprise income levels and its deterministic variables. Materials and Methods: Analytical responses from a randomly selected 210 poultry farm holders were analyzed using mean, percentages and logit models alongside required econometric diagnostics. Data on socioeconomic, demographic and financial inclusion variables were randomly collected via questionnaire schedules in a multi-staged sampling procedure. Results: From the population, the financially excluded were outrightly more (82.38%) than the financially included (17.62%). Also, 56.76, 64.86 and 62.16% of the financially included access to electricity joined cooperatives and solely engaged in farming while it is 6.38, 38.30 and 40.43% for the excluded, respectively. Besides, financially included households had higher gross returns to factor, relative to the deprived by at least 57.4% more and significant at a 5% level. Deterministic analyses of financial inclusivity, while infrastructural access, increasing formal education, cooperative membership, farming experience, solely farmers and age significantly determined financial inclusivity, owing to some or all of the reasons hypothesized. Conclusion: Financial inclusion significantly optimized farm income earning to an appreciable extent, with its influencing factors among the farm enterprises as investigated by this study hence, a favorably enabling environment that further consolidates its sustainability should be fostered.

View Fulltext Back