EXPLORING THE ROLE OF MICROFINANCE IN ADVANCING WOMEN'S FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND BUSINESS GROWTH

Given that Bangladesh has a male to female ratio of almost 49.5:50.5, the contribution of women's workforce to GDP is significant, and microfinance has been instrumental in enabling women to initiate microenterprises since 1974. Proper investigation of how microfinance can contribute to women's socioeconomic and entrepreneurial financial success is required. This study examines whether microfinance impacts the socio-economic development of women micro entrepreneurs and whether microfinance impacts the financial performance of women-led microenterprises. This primary and secondary database-driven mixed-methods study surveyed 273 women-led micro entrepreneurs and their enterprises across Bangladesh using a homogenous survey questionnaire. To meet the first research objective, the study employs primary responses from women micro entrepreneurs and uses Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Ordered Logit (Ologit) regression to analyze the mutual relationship between women micro entrepreneurs' socio-economic development and the six explanatory variables, including four relevant control variables. The study has also used a paired t-test methodology to meet the second research objective, comparing the microenterprises’ three years' average net income before and after taking microfinance. The results indicate a significant impact of microfinance on the socio-economic development of women micro entrepreneurs, with all independent variables except Q4IV and the control variable Q8CV demonstrating a significant relationship with the dependent variable. Additionally, the study confirms a statistically significant relationship between microfinance and the financial performance of those microenterprises. The study contributes to the field of research with a mixed methods statistical facility to analyze microfinance's impact on both socio-economic and financial performance dimensions of women micro entrepreneurs using both primary and secondary data.