Assessment of Financial Inclusion of Livestock Farmers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

The study assessed financial inclusion of livestock farmers in Ebonyi State using multistage sampling technique in the selection of 200 livestock farmers for the study. Data used for the study were primary data collected using questionnaire administered in the form of interview schedule. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics such as tables, frequency, mean and inferential statistics such as multinomial logit regression and principal component method of factor analysis. Results revealed that 58% of the respondents were males, with average age of 36 years and were married with mean household size of 5 persons. It was observed that the farmers spent an average of 16 years in school with 10 years of experience in livestock production that earned them average annual income of N1,411,300. The major livestock kept by the farmers included broilers (85%), sheep/goats (62%), layers (for eggs) (47%), pigs (32%) and cattle (16%). The type of livestock kept were influenced by demand for livestock (94%), prolific nature of type of livestock (88%), gestation period of livestock type (76%), availability of pasture (74%), price of livestock product (68%), climate of the area (68%), ease of management (58%), and marketing (56%). The financial inclusion index of 7 showed that financial inclusion measures dominant among the farmers were: own a bank account (96%), cash deposits (92%), access to ATM services (78%), access to mobile banking services (69%), access to ATM cards (66%), access to internet banking (66%), and POS services (64%). It was further observed that factors influencing financial inclusion of livestock farmers were from social, economic, institutional and managerial sources such as access to financial services (0.767), availability of market (0.622), marketing information (0.841), ease of internet banking services (0.792) and quality of financial services (0.620). From the Chi-square index of multinomial regression, it was observed that financial inclusion of livestock farmers has significantly influenced livestock production in the study area. The study concluded that financial inclusion of livestock farmers significantly influenced livestock production in the study area. The study recommended that financial institutions should deepen their measures of penetration in terms of access to insurance, credit and grant by making it more accessible to livestock farmers for effective financial inclusion.