Assessing public support for microcredit as a poverty combating strategy among people with disabilities in jos, plateau state, Nigeria

Considerable effort has been expended to develop interventions to address poverty in resource-poor economies, and microcredit is one of the most promising of these interventions. In Jos, Plateau State, the microcredit scheme has been praised for its success in the communities where it is being implemented. It was created to combat poverty and promote economic empowerment among the people of Jos because of their flexibility and unsubsidized credit programs that work for the poor, with or without collateral. However, Jos microcredit is rarely or never extended to poor people with disabilities in low-income countries. Using in-depth interviews of community leaders and microcredit program managers (n=24), this study assesses public support for microcredit as a poverty combatting strategy among people with disabilities. Our findings indicate that public support for microcredit as a poverty combating strategy among people with disabilities is unproven. It is believed that people with disabilities, lack the confidence to believe the microcredit programs can be beneficial to them, often leading to self-exclusion. Other members of the community attach a “survival of the fittest” notion to microcredit programs. This notion fuels the incentive for stronger people in the community to exclude the weaker ones. Microcredit officers may have explicit or implicit incentives to exclude people with disabilities, as a result of the perception that the people with disabilities are problematic and will create increased work burden can be beneficial to them, which leads to self-exclusion.