International Journal of Academic Accounting, Finance & Management Research (IJAAFMR)   Year: 2022 | Volume: 6 | Issue: 8 | Page No.: 41-50 Microfinance Operations and Women Empowerment in Nigeria Download PDF Andrew E.O Erhijakpor (PhD, FCA) and Onyewe, Utochi Abstract: This study examined the effect of microfinance operations on women empowerment in Nigeria from 1999 to 2020. Specifically the study examined the effect of microfinance bank loans, microfinance bank deposits, microfinance bank assets, and microfinance bank investments on women empowerment. The independent variable is microfinance bank operations measured by microfinance bank loan, deposits, assets, and investment. The dependent variable is women empowerment measured by proportion of microfinance credit to numbers of women able to access bank loans. The data for the study was sourced from Central Bank of Nigerian Statistical Bulletin (2020) and the World Bank Data Base (2020) with respect to both the study variables and the time scope. Meanwhile, the study adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model through the instrumentality of Econometric Views Version 9.0. The study found that microfinance bank loans, microfinance bank deposits, and microfinance bank assets have positive significant effect on women empowerment both on the short and long run. However, microfinance bank investments have positive insignificant effect on women empowerment both on the short and long run. Hence, the study concludes that microfinance banks' operations are instrumental to women empowerments in Nigeria both on the short and long run. As such, efforts should be made at increasing women access to microfinance so as to aid their personal development.