Strategies for Mitigating the Effects of Crisis in Microfinance Institutions in Ghana

• Main Author: Ahiafor, Akorfa
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: crisis communication; Crisis effect mitigation; Crisis management; crisis mitigation strategies; microfinance crisis; team leadership in crisis management; Business; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7362; https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8638&context=dissertations

Ghana has experienced an unprecedented failure of microfinance institutions. Within a period of 8 years from 2011 to 2019, the Bank of Ghana has revoked the license of over 489 microfinance institutions. The purpose of the exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies that microfinance managers apply to mitigate the effects of crisis to remain sustainable. The targeted population was composed of owner-managers from 6 microfinance companies in Ghana and 6 consultants who overcame the microfinance crisis and remained in practice. The situational crisis communication theory and the team leadership model were the conceptual frameworks for this study. Methodological triangulation was used to support the review and analysis of data from structured interviews, focus group discussions, and relevant company documents. Data were analyzed using NVivo to provide alphanumeric coding, and thematic analysis was used to support the identification of themes and subthemes, which were organized and linked to the crisis phenomenon to identify the 5 emerged themes: governance, communication, fundraising, cost reduction, and business model strategies. The study findings may contribute to social change by building confidence in the financial system, making microfinance services available to the lower end market. There may be more historical crisis effect mitigation strategies and evidence available to practitioners, entrepreneurs leading to job creation and sustainable businesses globally. These findings could provide insights for business leaders, owners-managers, the board of directors, practitioners and regulatory bodies to develop strategies to help their institutions survive in crises.