ROLE OF MICROFINANCE IN WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT INDISTRICTDIR(LOWER)

Abstract

Thisresearchwasconductedtoanalyzetheimpactsofmicrofinanceonsocio-economicconditions of microfinance borrowers in district Dir lower KPK, i.e. women empowerment andpoverty alleviation. After literature review data was collected through structured questionnairesand in depth semi structured interviews. The targeted clients were either clients of the Bank
ofKhyber,HelpingHandsoritsimplementingpartnerCrescent.DescriptivestatisticsandCorrelation analysis were applied to the collected data using SPSS version 16. It was observedfrom the research that there is positive impact of microfinance on women empowerment
andpoverty alleviation though it was not very significant. In addition to this, microfinance are foundto have serving less poor people while people in deep poverty stillhave a very limited access tomicrofinance funds. Overall microfinance plays positive role against
poverty and it empowerswomenup to satisfatory level.