Rural Women Borrowers: Do They Consume the Loan or Invest Productively an Empirical Study in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Finance is an important instrument in rural development. Providing low-cost, efficient credit services and recovering the loans granted are fundamental functions in rural finance. Low repayment rate affects the liquidity of lenders and discourages them to extend further credit. Investigation of credit utilization is of great importance both for policy makers and the lending institutions. The objective of this study was to assess the status of credit utilization choice and socio-economic, demographic, psychological and institutional characteristics of rural women members of RuSACCOs (Rural Savings Credit Cooperatives) of Kindo Koysha Woreda in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. In the course of this study, primary data were collected from 96 sample women borrowers. The analysis was done using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and percentage. In addition, t-test and chi-square test were employed to compare groups which used the loan for productive purpose and those used for consumption purpose with respect to borrowers’ characteristics. The following categories of women borrowers were found to have higher tendency to use the loan for productive purposes rather than consumption purpose : Younger women, more educated, married, with lower dependency ratio, with higher household income and expenses, with higher livestock holding, with prior business engagement, having better access to road and market, who availed higher loan amount and having higher amount as savings from/in  RuSACCO, higher level of training, following weekly repayment rather than fortnightly or monthly and higher economic motivation. The study recommended that RuSACCOs need to follow up closely with women borrowers having the characteristics opposite of those aforementioned for ensuring productive use of credit and offer adequate training to them. Keywords: Women Borrowers, Microcredit utilization, micro-finance, rural credit, RuSACC

Econometric Analysis of Rural Credit Utilization and Repayment Status among Rural Women: A Case of Southern Ethiopia

Delivering productive credit to the rural women has been a key in rural development undertaking. Providing low-cost, efficient credit services and recovering the loans granted are fundamental functions in rural finance. Low repayment performance discourages the lender to extend further credit. Investigation of credit utilization and repayment is of great importance both for policy makers and the lending institutions. The major objective of this study was to identify the major socio-economic, demographic, psychological and institutional factors that affect credit utilization and repayment performance of women members of RuSACCOs of Kindo Koysha Woreda in Wolaita Zone of SNNPR State. In the course of this study, primary data were collected from 96 sample women households and secondary data collected from respective organizations in the study area. The analysis was done using econometric analysis using Binary logit model. Binary Logit Model was used to identify the factors influencing credit utilization and repayment performance of women microcredit borrowers from rural saving and credit cooperatives. 12 continuous explanatory variables and three dummy variables were included in the logit mode. The binary logit model for credit utilization and repayment tested 15 explanatory variables. Out of which, five variables were significant and the rest were insignificant to explain the dependent variables. The loan repayment was significantly influenced by market access, transport road access, prior business engagement of women before the loan and economic motivation. Similarly, Credit utilization was significantly affected by four variables which were age of women, prior business engagement of women before the loan, transport road access and economic motivation. Thus, the findings identified need to be reckoned and suitable strategy to be introduced by RuSACCO management and policy makers to improve the loan utilization and repayment performance of women. Keywords: RuSACCO, loan Repayment performance, Microcredit utilization, micro-financ

The Effects of Time Varying Curvature on Species Transport in Coronary Arteries

Alterations in mass transport patterns of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and oxygen are known to cause atherosclerosis in larger arteries. We hypothesise that the species transport processes in coronary arteries may be affected by their physiological motion, a factor which has not been considered widely in mass transfer studies. Hence, we numerically simulated the mass transport of LDL and oxygen in an idealized moving coronary artery model under both steady and pulsatile flow conditions. A physiological inlet velocity and a sinusoidal curvature waveform were specified as velocity and wall motion boundary conditions. The results predicted elevation of LDL flux, impaired oxygen flux and low wall shear stress (WSS) along the inner wall of curvature, a predilection site for atherosclerosis. The wall motion induced changes in the velocity and WSS patterns were only secondary to the pulsatile flow effects. The temporal variations in flow and WSS due to the flow pulsation and wall motion did not affect temporal changes in the species wall flux. However, the wall motion did alter the time-averaged oxygen and LDL flux in the order of 26% and 12% respectively. Taken together, these results suggest that the wall motion may play an important role in coronary arterial transport processes and emphasise the need for further investigation

The role of physiological motion of coronary arteries on species transport and atherosclerosis

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Energy savings with the effect of magnetic field using R290/600a mixture as substitute for CFC12 and HFC134a

This paper presents an experimental study on the replacement of CFC12 and HFC134a by the new R290/R600a refrigerant mixture as drop-in replacement refrigerant with and without the effect of magnetic field. Without any modification to the system components drop-in experimental tests were performed on a vapour compression refrigeration system with a reciprocating compressor, which was originally designed to operate with CFC12.The test results with no magnets showed that the refrigerant R290/R600a had 19.9-50.1% higher refrigerating capacity than R12 and 28.6-87.2% than R134a. The mixture R290/R600a consumed 6.8- -17.4% more energy than R12. The coefficient of performance of R290/R600a mixture increases from 3.9-25.1% than R12 at lower evaporating temperatures and 11.8-17.6% at higher evaporating temperatures. The effect of magnetic field force reduced the compressor energy consumption by 1.5-2.5% than with no magnets. The coefficient of performance of the system was higher in the range 1.5-2.4% with the effect of magnetic field force. The R290/600a (68/32 by wt.%) mixture can be considered as an excellent alternative refrigerant for CFC12 and HFC134a systems

Characterising Loan Default among Women Microcredit Borrowers an Empirical Study in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Aims: Credit is a critical input for agriculture and women empowerment. Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives (RuSACCOs) are important financial institutions in remote villages of Ethiopia offering avenues for savings and credit for farmers and the poor. The aim of this study was to find out the repayment status of loans obtained by women farmers who were members in RuSAACOs. Study Design: The Study design followed was Ex-post facto Design through survey research. Place and Duration of Study: This study was undertaken in Kindo Koysha Woreda (district) in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. The study was held between December 2015 and May 2016. Sample: From four randomly selected RuSACCOs of the study district, 96 women farmers who had been members of RuSACCOs were selected as respondents. Methodology: Primary and Secondary data were gathered respectively from women members and district government agencies respectively. The sample size was determined using Yamane formula. The primary data yielded quantitative information on repayment status (Repaid regularly or otherwise). Similarly, data was gathered on 17 personal, socio-economic characteristics of the women members to provide the backdrop for their loan repayment status and to analyze the possible linkage between such characteristics and the repayment status.   Results: Descriptive statistics of the study showed that out of 96 respondents 50 per cent repaid the loan before due dates and the rest 50 percent could not repay the loan before due dates. The following categories of women borrowers were found to have higher tendency to repay rather than not to repay on time: Younger women, more educated, married, with lower dependency ratio, with higher household income and expenses, with higher livestock holding, with prior business engagement, having better access to road and market, who availed higher loan amount and having higher amount as savings in  RuSACCO, higher level of training, following weekly repayment rather than fortnightly or monthly and higher economic motivation. Interestingly, the characteristics of women like family size, household social ceremony expense, timeliness and adequacy of loan did not show any association with repayment status.  Conclusion: The study recommended that RuSACCOs must follow up closely with women borrowers having the characteristics opposite of those aforementioned (in “Results” paragraph) for ensuring prompt repayment of loan. The cooperative management could consider frequent cooperative training of women members for ensuring prompt repayment of loan

Determinants of Cash-savings of Farmers in Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Southern Ethiopia

Aims: Rural Savings and Credit Cooperatives are important financial institutions in remote villages of Ethiopia offering avenues for savings and credit for farmers and the poor. The aim of this study was to find out the determining factors of farmers’ cash-savings in rural cooperatives. Study Design: The Study design followed was Ex-post facto Design through survey research. Place and Duration of Study: This study was undertaken in Boloso Sore district (woreda) of the Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. The study was held between January 2016 and May 2016. Sample: From six cooperatives of the study district, 116 farmers who had been members of the cooperatives were selected as respondents. Methodology: Primary and Secondary data were gathered respectively from farmers and district government agencies respectively. The sample size was determined using Yamane formula. The primary data yielded quantitative information on average per capita annual amount of cash-savings by farmers (dependent variable). Similarly, data was gathered on 13 possible determining factors (variables) to explore their regression over the Annual per capita Cash-savings (Dependent variable). Multiple Linear regression technique was deployed to find out the strength of relationship between independent variables and the dependent variable.   Results: Descriptive statistics of the study showed that average per capita farmer annual saving in cooperatives was 297 ETB (USD 13). The parameter estimation of the linear regression model revealed that out of 13 variables tested, eight (8) were found to be significant at different probability levels. Size of land holdings, amount of on-farm income, amount of non-farm income, amount of loan, and access to training are positively and significantly related to the level of farmers’ average annual savings. On the other hand family size of respondent, total expenditure and credit beneficiary status of respondent was negatively and significantly related to the level of farmers’ average annual savings in cooperatives. Conclusion: As anticipated, assets possessed by farmers and their income were found to enhance the per capita savings of farmers in cooperatives. Corollary to this finding was that those resource poor and income poor had difficulty is savings. The cooperatives may have to design different strategy for encouraging savings among them. Similarly, family size and expenditure were inversely related to savings, for obvious reasons. Thrift habit was recommended to be inculcated among farmers having large family size and expenditure. Training was proved to be a game changer in terms of ensuring higher farmers’ savings. The cooperative management could consider frequent cooperative training of farmers for mobilizing higher savings