The impact of a rural microcredit scheme on women ’ s household vulnerability and empowerment : evidence from South West Nigeria

Microcredit interventions are increasingly being used in developing countries to mitigate credit market failures, by providing access to credit at low interest rates to the poor and other financially excluded groups. The rapid growth in popularity of microcredit in recent years is due to the belief that removing constraints to credit access for those in poverty, particularly women, through microcredit, can not only improve the well-being of the recipient but also ultimately help them out of poverty.