%0 Journal Article
%T Beyond Financial Access: The Association between Financial Inclusion and Women¡¯s Economic Empowerment in Montserrado County, Liberia
%A Tolbert Thomas Jallah
%J Open Access Library Journal
%V 13
%N 4
%P 1-24
%@ 2333-9721
%D 2026
%I Open Access Library
%R 10.4236/oalib.1115152
%X Women in Montserrado are constrained by structural factors that weaken the effectiveness of CBO training on income, asset control, and household decision-making, and ineffective interventions are seldom discovered in existing evaluations. This research investigated the association between financial inclusion interventions conducted by CBOs and women¡¯s economic empowerment, specifically on microfinance access, entrepreneurship training, financial services, and savings accounts. Using the Capability Approach and Empowerment Theory, it used a convergent parallel design in a mixed-methods approach. The population of interest consisted of 42,990 women beneficiaries, and the sample size of 384 was calculated using Kothari¡¯s formula and allocated proportionally to five districts, of which 310 responded to the survey. The study relied on descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation, correlation, and regression analysis for quantitative data. Findings from interviews and focus group discussions were analyzed thematically. Results show that women with greater microfinance access (26.9% vs 12.1%), entrepreneurship training (23.5% vs 14.4%), use of financial products (28.3% vs 10.2%), and savings (24.1% vs 11.7%) were associated with slightly higher economic empowerment and food security. The strength of correlations was weak to moderate (r = 0.02 - 0.55), regression analysis showed a small statistical association (financial products B = 0.055, p = 0.006; entrepreneurship training B = 0.110, p = 0.015) and qualitative findings indicate the presence of household, cultural, and project factors that impede decision-making power. The findings indicate that CBO-led financial inclusion is associated with higher women¡¯s income and food security but not with decision-making powers.
%K Financial Inclusion
%K Women¡¯s Economic Empowerment
%K Microfinance Access
%K Entrepreneurship Training
%K Household Decision-Making Power
%K Montserrado County
%K Liberia
%U http://www.oalib.com/paper/6892471