"Do Social cohesion promote Microfinance accessibility for survival of women MSMEs in post war communities in Sub-Sahara Africa? Empirical evidence from Northern Uganda

This study test the mediating effect of social cohesion in the relationship between microfinance accessibility and survival of women micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSMEs) in post war communities in Sub-Saharan Africa with data obtained from Northern Uganda. The main focus of the study is to establish the importance of social cohesion as a social protection tool that replaces physical collateral in order to enable the women MSMEs secure access to small microcredit from microfinance for survival of their businesses, especially in post war communities where physical assets have been destroyed by war and situation where cultural factors do not allow women to have property rights. We hypothesize that social cohesion as social protection tool (social collateral) positively interacts with microfinance accessibility to influence survival of women MSMEs in post war communities. The results reveal evidence of a positive influence of social cohesion as a social protection tool (social collateral). Thus, the success of microfinance accessibility as the alternative banking for the women MSMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa could be attributed to social cohesion in post war communities. Therefore, policy makers and advocates of post war reconstruction programmes should consider stimulating the roles of microfinance in post war communities. Specifically, regulations should loosen the necessary requirements fro microfinance banks to allow them to offer priority banking tailored towards MSMEs financing in post war communities. Besides, reconstruction programmes should initiate interventions that promote group activities through social structures that can offer social protection to women MSMEs in the long run. Furthermore, the existing financial institution act together with the microfinance institution act should make provision for operation of 'apex' organization as providers of microcredit to women MSMEs, especially in post war communities. Additionally, microfinance institutions should design financial products that suit the condition of borrowers in post war communities and delivered with dignity.