The role of informal microfinance institutions in saving

3.1 .1: Data Type
The study used mainly primary and secondary data from individual entrepreneurs and farmers
receiving credit from both formal and informal credit institutions as well as those who did not.
The formal financial institutions considered in this study were commercial banks, non-bank
financial institutions, savings and credit cooperative societies (SACCOs). Informal finance as
researcher said earlier that has been used to refer to all transactions, loans and deposits
occurring outside the regulation of a central monetary or financial market authority (Adams
and Von Pischke, 1992; Aryeetey and Udry, 1997). The informal financial institutions in this
study consisted of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs), savings and credit
associations (SACAs), mutual assistance groups(MAGs), relatives and friends, welfare
associations, community -based organizations and non government organizations(NGOs). The
primary data were collected by administering structured questionnaires to the sampled
respondents.
3.1.2: Research Design
In planning for the research study, the researcher was mindful of the need to have a well
articulated research design. Such a research design is desirable for the objective of data
collection that will be useful in addressing the research questions as well as test the stated
hypothesis. It is therefore a veritable guide for data generation, especially primary data. The
research strategy adopted in this study is the survey technique. This strategy was chosen
because of the nature of the research topic which demands the collection of significant amount
of data from a meaningful population size in an efficient manner. Because this method is well
understood and perceived as authoritative by people in general, it was most appropriate for
its adoption.
The research study was both exploratory and formal. The study was exploratory because it has
the objective of discovering future research tasks. It was equally formal because it further
extends the exploratory work by testing the hypotheses designed and also answers the
research questions asked. The research tries to find out what support measures were given to
SACCOs and by whom, which made it a descriptive study in one hand. On the other hand,
the study was causal in the sense that attempt was made to find out the causal relationships
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