People

Olubukola (Bukky) Olayiwola

PhD Student 

Photo of Olubukola (Bukky) Olayiwola

Contact

Email: olubukolaola@mail.usf.edu

Advisor

Kevin Yelvington

bio

I have a bachelor degree and masters’ in Anthropology, University of Ibadan (Nigeria). I am a PhD Candidate in Applied Anthropology, University of South Florida, USA and a Fellow (Wadsworth International Fellowship) of Wenner-Gren Foundation, USA. My research interests are in economic anthropology; the anthropology of policy; the anthropology of development organization; and the anthropology of ethnicity, women, and gender; microcredit and microfinancialization; the informal economy with special focus on West Africa. I have been involving in ethnographic research and survey across rural and urban centers of Nigeria since 2009. I have experience in monitoring and evaluation of MDGs projects, Social Impact Assessment and I have engaged in collaborative projects with organizations such as Harvest-Plus (Researcher), Harvard and Yale Okrika Survey-Lagos Trader Project (Unaffiliated Investigator), Action-Aid Nigeria (Consultant/State Enumerator and Program Facilitator), Development Policy Center, Ibadan (Program Assistant), and Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (Unaffiliated Investigator).

Research

My dissertation: “placing our breast on a hot kerosene lantern”: A Critical Study of Microfinancialization in the Lives of Women in the Informal Sector in Ibadan, Nigeria, I attempt to critique the Grameen Bank model as an empowerment scheme gears towards making provision of microcredit facilities for women in rural and urban centers in Nigeria. I am currently conducting ethnographic research/fieldwork among traders in the ancient city of Ibadan and towns within the southwest of Nigeria. In doing this, I have employed qualitative research methods like participant observation, interviews, and focus groups discussions, and surveys. And my research participants include women and borrowers of microcredit, petty commodity producers, members (women and men) of Cooperative, Investment and Credit Union (CICU), policy makers in government MDAs, as well as client officer and managers of MFBs.

Synopsis

Microcredit schemes fashioned after the Grameen Bank Model are widely acclaimed for their potential for empowering the poor through access to credit based on social collateral. The Grameen Bank is a financial empowerment scheme introduced in Tangail district, Bangladesh by Muhammad Yunus as an initiative of providing credit for poor women with social collateral. However, in contrast to the supposed positive outcomes, grassroots women in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria refer to microcredit loans as “owo komulelanta,” a term which literally translates as “resting the breast on a hot kerosene lantern,” a plain critique of the stringent conditions of loan repayment. Such a notion invokes images of violence as implicated in the process of loan repayment. In my ongoing dissertation research, I attempt to argue that neoliberalizing microcredit rather than creating empowerment for women through access to credit further agonizes their situation and makes them more vulnerable. It is considered as a universalizing solution to problems of poverty and thereby creates an image of “one-size fits all.” Therefore, I propose for a context-specific explanation of the failure of microlending as well as context-specific solution through the application of anthropological knowledge.

Publications

  • Olayiwola, Olubukola (2015), ‘Culture and Informal Marketing’. In A.J. Ademowo and T.D. Oladipo, eds., Engaging the Future in the Present: Issues in Culture and Philosophy. Pp. 86-92. Ibadan: Hope Publications.