ACCESS TO PUBLIC SOFT LOANS AND JOB CREATION AMONG MARGINALISED GROUPS IN TANZANIA

Abstract

Access to soft loans is an important tool in the promotion of self-economic sustenance and job creation. Moreover, globally the rate of unemployment is on the rise and particularly so for the youth and women. Therefore, the study aimed at assessing how access to soft loans issued by local government authority (LGA) contribute to job creation among the marginalised groups in the city of Dodoma, Tanzania. A cross sectional research design was used whereby using a questionnaire, data was collected from 336 randomly selected respondents. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS and STATA whereby both descriptive and inferential statistics were determined. In addition, binomial regression analysis was used to determine factors associated with the marginalised groups’ job creation following their access to LGA soft loans. Generally, findings from the study show that on average two jobs were created by the soft loan beneficiaries. In addition, findings show that the soft loan beneficiaries’ education, soft loan duration and type of income generating activity on which the loans were used were significantly (p ≤ 0.001) associated with job creation (p<0.01). In addition amount of loan received was negatively and significantly (p ≤ 0.05) associated with the marginalised groups’ job creation. Thus, it can be concluded that access to soft loan enables marginalised groups to create jobs. Therefore, it is recommended that Dodoma City Council should expand its provision of soft loans to marginalised groups so as to promote more job creation hence, reduce the rate of unemployment among the marginalised groups.

Keywords

• soft loans
• job creation
• local government authority
• marginalised groups