Assessing the Marketing Orientation of Microfinance Banks in Akwa Ibom State (Published)
This study was an attempt to investigate whether microfinance institutions (MFIs) operating within Akwa Ibom State have knowledge of marketing or adopt marketing strategies in their drive for savings and services delivery as well as examined the relationship between marketing orientation and the performance of marketing functions by microfinance Banks. Both primary and secondary sources of data were used. The instrument used was marketing knowledge inventory Questionnaire (MKIQ) developed by the researchers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the data. A major finding of this study was that there was poor knowledge of marketing among microfinance banks in Akwa Ibom State. The result of the hypothesis revealed a significant positive relationship between marketing orientation and performance of marketing functions .Based on these findings, we recommend that microfinance institutions in Akwa Ibom State be more proactive in marketing their services by creating marketing department, to be headed by a seasoned professional marketer, among other recommendations.
Keywords: Marketing Orientation, Microfinance Banks