By inspection, observation and government records there are too many poor in Southwest\nNigeria who require micro/small financial services such as credit, insurance, money transfer\netcetera in order to engage actively in productive activities and improve their standard of living.\nParadoxically, governments across the world, particularly in Nigeria over the years, have not\nbeen able to adequately help the poor in spite of all the rhetorics and several failed povertyalleviation\nprojects. The objective study examines the roles of microfinance towards the\ndispersion of credit among the working poor and also helped to improve the standard of living\nin Nigeria. The study draws from the data collected from the field survey and these were\nreported using tables, frequency counts and cross-tabulations to draw inferences. In addition, a\nloan demand model was specified and estimated using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS)\neconometric technique.The study used cross-sectional data collected from selected respondents\nin selected areas of both the Lagos and Ogun States of Nigeria respectively. The study confirmed\nthat most of the Microfinance banks in Nigeria are tailored after the Grameen Bank which\nfocuses on the poor and people with basic, little or no education and that loan demand is\ninterest rate insensitive to loan demand. The study recommended that MFIs should design\nappropriate products that are flexible enough to meet the different needs of the poor for both\nproduction and consumption purposes. Government should urgently tackle the infrastructural\ngaps such as electricity, water and efficient transportation system which impact greatly on the\nstandard of living of the people.\nJEL Classification: G21, G33
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