International Journal of Commerce and Management Research

Authors
Chude Nkiru Patricia,Chude Daniel Izuchukwu

Abstract
The study investigated the gap thesis and survival of informal financial institution in Nigeria. The study made use of descriptive survey. The study also found that for survival of informal financial institution need external intervention or support. Descriptive research design was used with correlation analysis. The result indicates that that informal financial sector in Nigeria have much influence on poverty alleviation in Nigeria. The study also indicates that informal financial institutions encounter so many problems which hinder their operations drastically. This is because the members are mainly women, not highly educated, and are mainly farmers, artisans and few local traders and the loanable fund to the institutions are very meagre, hence the informal financial sector still find it difficult to survive. We therefore recommend that, In order to have a sustainable informal financial institutions intervention, the government should also keep infrastructures in place especially good motor-able roads that link more remote areas to markets. The government should create special fund to be manage by CBN, towards supporting the operation of the informal financial institutions in Nigeria. Finally, the CBN should use part of its special fund for SMEs to support the operations of informal financial institutions in Nigeria.