Can Women Put Their Breasts on a Hot Paraffin Lantern and Go to Sleep? Interrogating the Anguish of Financing Small- and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) with Microcredits in Nigeria

Women perform critical roles as a catalyst of economic development globally. In Africa, they supply 60–80% of the agricultural labour force, engage in several entrepreneurial activities, and are fast emerging as the sole breadwinners. Despite their laudable contributions, several gendered norms and stereotypes impede women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, and the ownership of resources required for establishing and financing small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). Scholars and the government have long identified microfinance banks as a significant pivot for engendering women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. The study interrogates women’s motivations for obtaining microcredits from microfinance banks to fund SMEs. It probes their lived experience to ascertain if microcredits foster women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion. The study established that although microcredit banks make microcredit readily available and accessible, high interest rates often negatively impact women’s ability to repay microcredits. Also, dehumanising loan recovery strategies undermine debtors’ social and emotional well-being and militates against women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion.