Impact of micro-agricultural financial institution of South Africa services on livelihood of beneficiaries in North West Province, South Africa

PhD (Agricultural Economics), North-West University, Mafikeng Campus

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact MAFISA on the livelihoods of beneficiaries before and after they accessed it. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 280 respondents from a total of 344 beneficiaries. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages were used to summarise the data. Analysis of the demographic characteristics of respondents was done and the results revealed that majority of respondents were males (86.8%) and most of them (71.4%) had secondary level school of education. The results of the study show that there has been a significant change on financial capitals of respondents. The indebtedness level of respondents used to be at 97.1 %) before their participation in the credit scheme, however, the figure dropped significantly to 3.3% after their involvement in the credit scheme. The results show that 96.3% of respondents now have water equipment after accessing physical capital by borrowing from the scheme. The results show that social capital had a significant impact on the majority of respondents (93.4%) establishing a good network with financial institutions.

Doctoral