INFLUENCE OF FINANCIAL LINKAGES ON GROWTH OF INFORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN HOMA BAY COUNTY OF KENYA

Financial linkage is an emerging form of partnership widely practiced between NGOs, formal and informal financial institutions in developing countries. The existing forms include but not limited to financial training, Savings products and Credit Information Sharing (CIS). Informal financial institutions enter into such linkages with an aim of growing the volumes of credit accessed. In Homa Bay County, various forms of financial linkages have emerged with statistics indicating unstable growth in volumes of credit accessed by informal financial institutions. According to Homa bay Women Sacco, the loan disbursed grew by 88.46% between 2015 and 2017. This is in tandem with the institutional theory of complementarity adopted by this study. However, studies on formal-informal financial institutions’ relationship and contribution of financial linkages to credit access in developing countries have elicited divergent views. Some reveal that financial linkages offer the best solution to promoting credit access while others indicate that the linkages may reduce access to credit and impact negatively on growth of the institutions. It is on this basis that the study sought to establish the influence of the emerging linkages on growth of informal financial institutions in Homa Bay County. The study was based on the positivists approach to conceptualization and was guided by correlational research design. A total of 300 respondents were selected using stratified sampling technique. Both open and closed-ended pre-tested questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Secondary data were from relevant documents of the institutions. The desired relationships were established through multiple regressions while bivariate associations were determined using Correlational analysis. The study revealed that volumes of group savings and Credit information sharing both had significant relationships with the growth of informal financial institutions. On the other hand, financial training had an insignificant negative relationship with access to credit by the institutions, the negative relationship suggests that through training, the informal financial institution’s managers strengthen their internal management mechanisms, thus become less dependent on borrowed funds for their activities. The study thus recommends that the three forms of linkages be strengthened to enhance growth of the institutions in Homa Bay County. KEY WORDS: Financial Linkages, Growth, Institutions, County, Kenya