Is Microcredit and Health Insurance Access Effective for Vulnerable Peoples?

Abstract

Sostella Arida Tchouala Feutsa and Christian Lambert Nguena

Using secondary data collected from Dschang in the West region of Cameroon, we examined the effectiveness of micro- credit and health insurance access on vulnerable groups which includes the physically disabled and other forms of vulnerability. We undertook a statistical and qualitative econometric analysis using a logit model and obtained the following results: microcredit and health insurance access reduce the vulnerability of people via their health, financial and social status. Our findings open the way for some economic measures that should be taken to assist vulnerable people. From a macroeconomic perspective, these measures include the implementation of a food policy targeted towards increasing access to nutrition; a financial policy to improve access to drugs for individuals, and a social policy to achieve a high level of integration of vulnerable peoples and a high level of literacy of individuals. From a microeconomic perspective, we recommend that microfinance managers develop more products specific to and targeting the vulnerable population as well as those involved in small jobs and the informal sector with specific loans that can help them move to formal and more conventional jobs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper with this objective and methodology focusing on the dataset along with the same case study.

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