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PurposeThe problem of inaccessibility of finance for farm investment is a common phenomenon among farmers, especially the rural dwellers. Thus, there is a need to know how the accessibility of informal finance can be increased to increase farm investment. Therefore, this study evaluates farmers’ access to informal finance and its contribution to farm investment among rural farmers in Northcentral Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachA three-stage random sampling technique was employed to select 160 farmers. Primary data collected were analysed with descriptive statistics and the Heckman selection model.FindingsThe study revealed that cooperative society is the major informal means of loan acquisition used by the farmers followed by Rotational Savings and Credit Associations (RoSCAs). Informal loans contributed to agricultural investment through the various operational activities involved in production. Factors influencing farmers’ access to informal loans were the age, farm size and income of the farmers. Interest charged, farmers' age, farming experience, household size, education and loan duration were the drivers of the amount borrowed from the informal financing sector.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study call for policies that will sustain informal financial institutions in developing economies, like Nigeria. Thus, the government through its regulatory agencies should assist informal finance providers with the necessary resources to achieve more goals. This is because the informal credit lenders help in bridging financial gaps created by formal financial institutions, such as commercial banks.Originality/valueUnlike the previous research studies, this study investigated the driving factors of the amount borrowed from informal finance and its use in farm investment.

Nigeria's Vision 2020 has expressed a bold desire for the country to be among the world's top 20 economies by the year 2020. The economy has posted impressive growth figures since 2003, driven by higher oil revenues and a series of home-grown economic reforms. The country is now firmly on the road to middle-income status. But what else do government and the private sector need to do to create the jobs and growth that will underpin the national development strategy? What are the challenges that Nigeria's businesses face today? 'An Assessment of the Investment Climate in Nigeria' provides answers to these questions. Based on a survey of 2,300 companies, it provides evidence-based recommendations designed to support Vision 2020 and the president's seven-point agenda. The authors find that government must move quickly to create jobs and reduce poverty. Key challenges include a desperate shortage of energy and a poor transportation network, as well as low levels of education and continuing unrest in the Niger delta. In addition, Nigeria's workers need to become more productive in order to compete in a globalized economy. As a matter of fact, they are less productive than workers in more dynamic countries, such as Brazil, China, and Kenya. Improving productivity will require simultaneous efforts to foster competition, improve specific aspects of the business environment, and facilitate better management and training within individual firms. In addition to the issues of productivity, Nigeria's best firms have not been able to expand their market share. Consequently, policy makers need to address and elimate obstacles to competition, including barriers to entry, convoluted taxation, property registration, and licensing.

The study examines the determinants of credit delivery from formal and informal sources to women households who belong to below poverty line in Ganjam district of Odisha, apart from analysing determinants of participation of women in self-help groups to avail credit, and identifying the factors influencing loans borrowed by BPL households. The study showed that majority of the households received loans from formal sources for agricultural purposes. However, a lower proportion of SHG members availed insurance services due to their low income. The results of logistic estimates clearly showed that factors such as age, education, number of children of the respondents, status as head of the household, sources of income, caste, informal debt, distance of banks, migration, economic status of households, etc. played a crucial role in determining women's participation in SHGs to borrow credit.

Since the mid-1990s, Bangladesh's banking sector has grown considerably. Despite the boom and the government's efforts to increase access in rural areas, rural financial markets have shrunk in relative terms. As a result, access to finance by micro, small, and medium-size enterprises and marginal, small, and medium-size farmers - the \"missing middle\" - remains limited, which is significant because these groups are the engines of growth in rural Bangladesh in terms of employment, contribution to GDP, and prospects for future growth.

Recently, accessibility to credit has become a global issue and need to be examined frequently that needs the attention of regulators and researchers. Thus, this study examines the credit facilities (the price of credit and reliability of credit sources) on the accessibility of customer credit at commercial banks in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam, in the context of the COVID-19COVID-19 pandemic. The study also examines the moderating role of the contemporary economic environment among the nexus of the price of credit, reliability of credit sources and accessibility of the credit of customers at commercial banks in Binh Duong Province. The findings suggested that the price of credit has negative while reliability of credit sources have a positive impact on the accessibility of the credit of customer at commercial banks. The results also revealed that the contemporary economic environment significantly moderates among the nexus of the price of credit, reliability of credit sources and accessibility of the credit of customers at commercial banks.

Using 791 consistent households in the balanced panel, comprising 3,985 households in the unbalanced panel–from a nationally representative, multipurpose, five-round (1988, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2014) Mahabub Hossain Panel Data in Bangladesh—we provide evidence for the long-term impact of different rural credit sources—which include formal banks, quasiformal microfinance institutes, and informal channels—on household welfare indicators. We find that the long-term impact of access to rural credit on a few welfare indicators is statistically insignificant and sometimes negative. This finding mostly holds when we investigate the impact of different rural credit sources separately. Our results raise a question on the progressive lending of some credit sources, especially microfinance institutes, and have implications for the introduction of nationwide credit bureaus in Bangladesh.

Credit accessibility is crucial for sustainable agricultural development. However, the difficulty in accessing credit has caused farmers to take many considerations when taking a loan. This research aims to determine the factors determining access and credit sources for cassava farmers in Lampung Province, Indonesia. Central Lampung was chosen as the research location because it had a total cassava production share of 36%. This study used Isaac’s and Michael’s formulae to determine the total samples. The data were collected by interviewing 263 respondents. Of 263 farmers, only 109 (41.4%) had access to loans. Data were analysed using the Multinomial Logit Regression Model to examine the factors determining access and credit sources for cassava farmers. Marginal effect analysis was also used to determine the probability of changes in independent variables. Regression results showed that the type of credit sources chosen by the farmers was determined by age, income, agribusiness experience, land size, education, organisation membership, and credit experience ( = 89.1%). Partially, age, income, land size, education, credit experience, and business experience significantly influence the funding source. The results indicate that age, agribusiness experience, and land size are the main factors in choosing the types of credit. Land size has the biggest positive influence on farmers’ access to formal banks (11.49%).

Using nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) collected in 2011-12, this study examined the impact of livelihood diversification and accessibility to institutional credit on the monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) of households. The data provided information about 42,152 households, and our study focused on only the households that had taken a loan from any source, thus reducing the sample size to 22,630 households. The estimate suggested that, if a household had taken a loan from a formal source, then it was likely to have a higher MPCE by approximately 24.68 percent on average. We also found that households whose main source of income belonged to the secondary sector had a negative and insignificant coefficient while the coefficient of the tertiary sector suggested that they had about a 29 percent higher MPCE compared to those households who belonged to the primary sector. The results also suggested that Hindus had a higher consumption compared to Muslims. However, Christians and Sikhs had about 36 percent and 23 percent higher consumption, respectively, than Hindus. The study also found that households belong to lower social groups (OBC, SC, and ST) had lower consumption compared to households that belonged to the general category of the caste system.

Microfinance institutions must understand what influences their clients' choice of credit source in order to design and provide adequate and appropriate credit facilities to their clients. This paper explores the determinants of the choice of credit source among beneficiaries of microfinance systems in the Upper West Region of Ghana. An interview guide and a questionnaire were used to collect data. The study employed the multinomial probit model to analyse the data. The study revealed that gender, arable crop farming, household size, dependency ratio, access to microfinance information, repayment period, group size, interest rate, distance, loan amount, borrowing experience, household assets, and household members employed were the main determinants of the choice of credit source among beneficiaries. The study recommends that the Bank of Ghana, through the Apex Bank, standardise repayment periods and procedures such that banks compete on innovative methods of sourcing borrowers, which could result in efficiency in the lending industry.

As the banks have tightened lending requirements, companies look for alternative sources of external funding. One of such is bonds issue. Unfortunately, corporate bonds issue as a source of funding is rare in Lithuania. This occurs because companies face with a lack of information, investors fear to take on credit risk. Credit risk is defined as a borrower’s failure to meet its obligation. Investors, in order to avoid credit risk, have to assess the state of the companies. The goal of the article is to determine the most informative methods of credit risk assessment. The article summarizes corporate lending sources, analyzes corporate default causes and credit risk assessment methods. The study based on the SWOT analysis shows that investors before making an investment decision should evaluate both the business risk,using qualitative method CAMPARI, and the financial risk, using financial ratio analysis. Santrauka Bankams sugriežtinus kreditų išdavimo sąlygas, įmonės ieško alternatyvių išorės finansavimo šaltinių. Vienas tokių – obligacijų emisija. Deja, Lietuvoje įmonių obligacijų leidimas yra retas reiškinys: organizacijos susiduria su informacijos stoka, investuotojai baiminasi prisiimti kredito riziką. Kredito rizika siejama su įsipareigojimų nevykdymu. Investuotojai, siekdami išvengti kredito rizikos, turi vertinti įmonių būklę. Straipsnio tikslas – nustatyti informatyviausius metodus, padedančius vertinti kredito riziką. Straipsnyje susisteminami įmonių kreditavimo šaltiniai, analizuojamos įmonių įsipareigojimų nevykdymo priežastys, kredito rizikos vertinimo metodai. Remiantis SSGG analize, atliktas tyrimas parodė, kad investuotojai, prieš priimdami investicinį sprendimą, turėtų įvertinti tiek pačio verslo riziką remdamiesi kokybiniu CAMPARI metodu, tiek finansinę riziką atlikdami finansinių rodiklių analizę. Reikšminiai žodžiai: kreditavimo šaltiniai; įsipareigojimų nevykdymo priežastys; obligacijos, kredito rizikos vertinimo metodai; kredito reitingo agentūros; investicinis sprendimas; SSGG analizė.