LIFT ABOVE POVERTY (LAPO) BANK CREDIT AS AN INNOVATION FOR IMPROVING THE INCOME OF THE USERS IN MAKURDI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

The study assessed LAPO bank credit as an innovation for improving the income of users in Benue State, Nigeria and adopted multi-stage sampling technique of sample size, 100 with descriptive and inferential statistics as tools of analysis of data from primary source. Results showed that 69.0% of the respondents were males, married (62%), having one form of formal education or the other (77%), mean age of 34.58 years, mean annual income of N348.670.00, mean household size of 9 persons and mean experience of 8.69 years. The variables that influenced the probability of use of LAPO bank credit were education, household size, access to credit and experience, they were all significant at 1% level of probability, while sex was significant at 5%. The study finds that LAPO bank credit improves the income of the users as income after usage significantly improved compared to income before usage. The study concludes that LAPO bank credit innovation could be a panacea to improve the income of the users as it has high potential for contribution to growth of Nigerian economy. It is recommended that government and non-governmental agencies should come with more interventions to provide soft loan to citizens so as to create greater impact on their income.