The Impact of Microfinance Institutions Activities on the Sustainability of Secondary Education in Rural Areas in the South West Region of Cameroon

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the impact of microfinance institutions activities on the sustainability of secondary education in rural areas in the South West Region of Cameroon. The study is guided by two specific objectives which are; to investigate how giving of loans impact the sustainability of secondary education in rural areas in the South West Region of Cameroon and; to find out how corporate social responsibilities by microfinance institutions impact the sustainability of secondary education in rural areas in the South West region of Cameroon. The objectives are transformed into two research questions and hypotheses. The survey research design using the convergent mix approach was approved for the study. The population of the study comprised inhabitants in rural areas and category one microfinance institutions in the in the South-West Region of Cameroon. The sample size of the study consisted of 423 registered inhabitants in any cooperative union in rural areas in the Limbe 1, 2, 3 sub-divisions, Tiko sub-division, Buea sub-division, Kumba 2, 3, and Mbonge sub-divisions, Mamfe central and Upper Banyang sub-divisions, 23 managers of the microfinance institutions that made up the accessible population of the study. The participants are sampled using the cluster, simple random and snow ball sampling techniques. Questionnaire, interview guide and focus group discussion were the instruments adopted for the study. Quantitative data collected were analysed using the descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS version 25 while qualitative data were analysed thematically. The findings showed that loans by microfinance institutions (R-value =0.159** p-value 0.001 < 0.05) and cooperate social responsibilities by microfinance institutions (R-value =0.194** p-value 0.000 < 0.05) have positive and significant effect on the sustainability of secondary education in rural areas in the South West Region of Cameroon. In fact, 88.6% of parents sees microfinance loan to empower parents in rural areas to send their children to school. Based on this, it was generally recommended that an enabling environment (policy wise) should be adopted and implemented by the government that would make MFIs becoming a strong partner in the sustainability of education of children especially in rural areas in Cameroon.