Abstract

Bime MJ and Mbanasor J

The study was aimed at determining the socio-economic determinants of informal savings amongst vegetable
farmers in the North West Region, Cameroon. Savings and savings mobilization in any economy is undertaken by
formal, semi formal and informal institutions. Possibly as a result of this poor bank distribution, one is able to clearly
see how the region is highly dominated by the informal sector. Data for the study were obtained from 180 farmers
with the aid of well structured questionnaires through a multistage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using
descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Results obtained showed that vegetable farmers were on the
average 36 years with average household size of 7. Average farm size of 0.5 ha cultivated indicates small nature of
holdings. Results from the multiple regression analysis showed that interest paid, farm size, income, education and
distance were positively significant while gender, age and household size were also significant and negative .This
implies that all factors play a significant role in determining informal savings amongst vegetable farmers. It was
recommended that farmers should be encouraged and enlightened on the need of savings as well as encouraged to
form savings cooperatives.