The role of competition and interest rate on over-indebtedness in the microfinance Industry

Binney, Othniel

The main aim of the paper is to determine the role of competition and high interest rate on customer over-indebtedness. Over-indebtedness here defined, from a customer-protection perspective, as continuously struggling with debt repayment and experiencing unacceptable sacrifices related to the debt. To achieve this, a total of ten microfinance firms were selected from the study area, as well as 85 microfinance customers using a random and cross-sectional collection of data. Analysis of the data showed that even though there is a high level of competition among the microfinance firms, this has not exerted any downward pull on interest rates charged to benefit customers. Secondly, clients are more concern about repayment regimes and prevailing macroeconomic conditions than the interest charged on loans. Customer characteristics such as employment status and financial literacy were found to be directly related to possibility of over-indebtedness. Finally the study noted that interest rates of microfinance firms in Ghana have been steadily declining, even the though county has one of the highest microfinance interest rates in the world.

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