Tackling the socio economic determinants for improving the living standard of the poor people through micro finance. (Case study of D.I.Khan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan)

Muhammad Imran Qureshi ^1*, M. Amjad Saleem ², Aziz Javed ³,  Mahmood Shah⁴

¹Department of Commerce Gomal University D.I.Khan

²Govt. College of Commerce and Mgt. Sciences D.I.Khan

³Department of Business Administration GU D.I.Khan

⁴Department of Economics G.U D.I.Khan

*corresponding author Email: imrancba77@yahoo.com

Accepted  28 June 2012

Abstract

The major objective of the research is to show the impact of micro finance on various socio economic determinants for improving the living standard of the poor people in the study area. This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in order to find out the feasible solution of the problem. The study was guided by the following research questions: what are the problems relating to living standard? To what extent the problems enabled the respondents towards improvement in living standard? And what are improvements achieved in this regard in the fields of income, employment, education, communication, health care, children’s education and housing?  It can be concluded that provision of Micro-finance is very useful in improvement of living standard of the poor people. Micro financial Institutions should encourage poor to borrow by revisiting the collateral conditions and reducing interest rates. The result of the study showed positive significant impact on the dependent variables i.e. living standard. It was found that there is a high interest rate on micro loans because of the administrative cost. Stratified random sampling techniques were used to get a total of 96 respondents. Data were collected through close ended questionnaires, semi structured interviews, observations and documentary reviews. Data analysis was based on descriptive statistics using various statistical tools like regression, correlation, t- test and ANNOVA with the help of tables.

Keywords: Micro finance, MFIs, Living standard, income, employment, education, communication and health care.