Abstract

Poverty is one of the most enthralling challenges facing Ghana in recent times. The gap between the haves and the have nots has been on a steady rise. Like a sick person moving from hospital to hospital in search of treatment, so is Ghana also on the quest of finding an antidote or cure to the problem of poverty. In the search for the antidote, Micro-finance has been found as a major antidote to poverty reduction. Microfinance brings on board products like micro-credit, micro-insurance and micro-savings. The overall aim of the study was to explore the impact of Microfinance on households welfare vis--vis as income, education, savings and quality healthcare in the selected areas. The study was conducted in ten villages selected in the Ashaiman municipality in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. The sample population was all beneficiaries of micro finance programmes in the municipality. A simple random selection was used to select 120 beneficiaries of microfinance programmes in the municipality. A simple, structured questionnaire and interview were used to collect data from the respondents.Statiscal Package for social scientists and Microsoft Excel were used for the data analysis. Tables were used to show the relationships between some variables. Analysis from the study showed that microfinance has some impact on household welfare. The study revealed that micro finance had a positive impact on their lives, because they saw an increase in their incomes, t had an opportunity to save money, could contribute to their childrens education, and were better able to purchase

household assets. Additionally, they were able to make improvements in household diet and were able to receive appreciation from family members. Most respondents reported that they felt empowered because their self-confidence was promoted, leading to an enhanced ability to exchange and learn new ideas from fellow Group members Based on the findings of the study the following recommendations were made. There is the need to increase the loan size for clients, given the fact that poverty levels have not significantly changed in the study area. It is recommended that MFIs should rather concentrate much resource into savings mobilization. From basic knowledge in economics, capital accumulation has a greater strength to reduce poverty. Savings provides an asset for the economys investment in future production. Without them, the economy cannot grow unless there are alternative sources of investment.