Determinants of Microcredit Access and Utilization Among Catfish Farmers in Akure Metropolis of Ondo State

• S. A. Adejo

  Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

  Author

• M. D. Matthew

  Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

  Author

• D. Akubo

  Department of Agricultural Technology, Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, Kogi State.

  Author

The study analysed the determinants of microcredit access and utilization among catfish farmers in Akure Metropolis, Ondo State, Nigeria. Primary data were used for this study. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select 90 respondents for the study. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies, mean, and principal component analysis (PCA). It was found that many (27.8%) of the catfish farmers were between 41 and 50 years old, with an average age of 43 years, 58.0% were men, 66.7% with an average of 4 people per household. The majority (92.2%) had formal education, with most (55.6%) catfish farmers obtaining their microcredit primarily from their personal savings. The principal component analysis showed that Age of enterprise (0.832), Net Profit (0.809), loan size (0.758), farm size (0.745) Age of the farmers (0.732), pond size (0.664), employee size (0.635), use of modern machinery and equipment (0.577), educational qualification management (0.572) and Integrity of the farmer with a factor loading of (0.650). considered had a positive relationship with access to microcredit. The main determinants of access to microcredit were the age of the business with component loading of 0.832, then net profit accumulated by the business with a factor loading of 0.809, the loan size with a factor loading of 0.758, and the farm size with 0.745, while the age of the farmers was also a major determinant with a factor loading of 0.732. The other determinants and their respective factor loadings were the size of the enterprise (0.635), the size of the pond (0.664), the use of modern machinery and equipment (0.577), the educational qualification of the management (0.572), and the integrity of the farmer with a factor loading of (0.650). The study recommended that Catfish farmers should form cooperative societies which will improve their access to low-interest loans and also leverage on the advantages of economies of scale also, financial institutions should be encouraged to lower the cost at which they give out loans to catfish farmers and also, make the process of acquiring these loans easier.

1. S. A. Adejo, Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

   Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

2. M. D. Matthew, Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

   Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Federal College of Agriculture, Akure, Ondo State.

3. D. Akubo, Department of Agricultural Technology, Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, Kogi State.

   Department of Agricultural Technology, Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja, Kogi State.

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