ABSTRACT
The study work examined loan acquisition, utilization, and repayment by catfish farmers in Ikpoba-Okha and Oredo Local Government Areas, Edo state. The specific objectives of the study are to: describe the socio-economic characteristics of catfish farmers in the study area; identify the sources, amount of loan requested and disbursed, time to process, repayment period, and the interest rate at which the credit are given; examine the use to which catfish farmers put the credit; assess repayment performances by borrowers; and identify constraints that affect the acquisition and utilization credit. A total of one hundred (100) respondents were selected for the study through multistage sampling technique. Data collection was facilitated by the use of structured questionnaire which was administered, was used in the selection of respondents for the study. Both primary and secondary data (journals, books) were used in the study. Primary data were collected using questionnaire and interview schedule. The data were measured and analysed statistically using descriptive statistics (such as frequency count, percentages, mean, standard deviation), debt service ratio (DSR) and multiple regression. Results showed that majority (77%) of the sampled respondents are male, with an average age of 45 years, 67% were married, they had an average household size of five persons. The average farming experience was 8 years. 40% had tertiary education, 75% made use of personal funds, 15% made use of funds from family and friends, 25% made use of loan. 55% belonged to a cooperative society. were members of cooperative while 45% of the sampled respondents were not members of cooperative33%, with the mean average of monthly income earned to be ₦212,000. The average loan requested was found to be N824,000, the average loan received was ₦824,000. With average interest rate to be 9.8%. The repayment period for majority (64%) of the loan was found to be 16 months while 44% of the loan had a repayment period of 9 months. Lastly, majority (92%) of the loan had a monthly repayment pattern and a minute portion (8%) had per cycle repayment pattern. The Debt Service Ratio (DSR) was found to be 70.14% - an indication that a high portion of the income is spent servicing debt (loan) while a small fraction of income is available for operation of the farm enterprise. The result of Multiple regression showed a negative relationship between the independent variables; age, household size, cooperative membership and monthly income with the dependent variable Debt Service Ratio (DSR). This negative relationship is statistically significant with an F-value of 6.58 at 1%, 5% and 10% level of significance respectively.
