Empirical Investigation on Repayment Performance of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia’s Hardcore Poor Clients

Abstract

This study employs a cross sectional design with stratified random sampling method to examine the factors that
are associated with repayment problem encountered by clients of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM)’s microcredit
program. Findings of this study show that fungibility issue, number of gainfully employed members and number
of sources of income and household’s main economic activities are associated with repayment problems. AIM
therefore has to focus on advising the clients to use the credit in income generating activities. Policies should
also be reviewed and re-organized to increase employment rate and income generating opportunities among
client’s household members by providing appropriate training, diversifying the loan program and offering loans
for-non income generating activities.