This Section describes the challenges encountered by the researcher during the field research. Harzing et al. (2013) describe such challenges as “messy dilemmas” that researchers have to navigate in order to complete the field exercise. Being a scholar who has continuously lived in a developed country for over 6 years prior to the fieldwork, the researcher faced certain challenges such as staying in places with no electricity and porTable clean water, the risk of getting robbed and the prospect of being approached by staff members for bribes? in order to ensure access to the site. The specific challenges faced by the researcher during the fieldwork are discussed here.
4.8.1 Language Barrier
Research has shown that the use of English language questionnaires to solicit responses from participants with little or no English literacy could create a language bias (Harzing, 2005). This occurs because their poor English literacy could limit respondents’ ability to understand the questions which could lead to poor or incorrect responses. Given that the fieldwork was conducted in five states where a minimum of three different native languages (Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa) was spoken by respondents, the researcher was faced with a language barrier challenge. However, the researcher overcame the language challenge by translating the questionnaire into the native languages of the respondents. Besides making the questionnaire language friendly, the researcher observed that the translation encouraged respondents to
123 | P a g e engage more, and this increased the response rate (Harzing, et al., 2013). The researcher did not face any language challenge in interviewing members of staff as every one of them had a reasonable understanding of the English language given that it is the main language of communication within the organization.
4.8.2 Interviewing Women
Women borrowers constituted the main service users of the microfinance organization examined as well as the main respondents for this study. In the Nigerian context, it is culturally inappropriate for an adult male to be alone in a confined place (a room) with married women even for the purpose of research. Because most of the women respondents were married, the researcher took the decision to conduct all interviews with the women borrowers within the premises of the microfinance organization to eliminate any impression of an amorous relationship. However, this meant that the researcher had to contend with issues associated with interviewing in open places such as noise and distractions from passerby clients who were non-research participants. Another concern was to ensure that respondents did not feel uncomfortable to express negative views within the institution’s premises. To minimise this challenge, the researcher used open spaces detached from the main operation floor of the microfinance intervention. in addition, staff members were not allowed to interfere with the interview in any way.
There was no indication of unease resulting from interviews been held at the organisation’s premises as the respondent freely express negative views on a wide range of issues regarding the intervention. For instance, comments were made with respect to high-interest rates, issues relating to lack of microinsurance facilities, overbearing activities of some group leaders and the lack of appropriate support systems to assist women clients who lose their finance to theft or fire incidents. Although these views were not reported in detail in this these, they have been captured in a forthcoming publication (Nkwocha et al., (2019). Conducting the interviews on the
124 | P a g e premises of the microfinance organisation also ensured that the opinions of the women were not affected by their husbands or other male household members.
4.8.3 Dominant Voices
Smithson (2000) observed that a common challenge for focus group interviews is how to deal with one or several group member(s) dominating the discussion so that theirs is the only opinion clearly articulated. The researcher encountered this challenge with some of the focus group interviews conducted. In one instance, during the interview, a leader of one of the unions was always attempting to respond to all the questions asked, at other times she would attempt to summarize comments made by other respondents. The researcher felt that this behaviour had to be managed in order to prevent her views overriding the views of other respondents. Also, such behaviour could prevent other respondents from engaging in the group interview and consequently limiting the insights that could have been gained from having differing views on the subject. The researcher tackled this challenge by referring questions to other respondents and by directly appealing to them to contribute to the discussion.
4.8.4 Time and Cost
Due to poor transportation facilities in rural areas, the researchers faced a challenge in locating the respondents and this meant more time was spent. Also, as there was the lack of a baseline data which the researcher could have built upon, the researcher had to employ cross-sectional data for the study instead of the preferred panel date for analysis program effect on service users (Armendariz de Aghion and Morduch, 2005). In addition, due to the large geographical coverage areas of the research (5 states), the researcher found that the cost of the fieldwork required a huge outlay of funds to cover transportation costs, hotel bills, and feeding.