Journal of Development and Agricultural Economics Vol. 3(3), pp. 98-106, March 2011 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/JDAE ISSN 2006- 9774 ©2010 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Microfinance and gender in the context of millennium development goals (MDGs) in Nigeria Abosede, Adebiyi Julius 1 * and Azeez, Bolanle Aminat 2 1 Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Olabisi Onabanjo University. Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. Nigeria. 2 Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria Accepted 25 February, 2011 Issues in client targeting are two in nature; gender targeting or poverty targeting (Brau and Woller, 2004). The nature of target to some extent will determine the ‘best practices’ in conjunction with local specific situation. In the first issue of gender targeting, the question has always been whether to lend to women or men in the context of which will give wider reach and benefit the society. This position was examined in the context of what are contained in recent literature with respect to microfinance activities in Nigeria using Chi-square non-parametric method of analysis to test the hypothesis differentials. It has, therefore, not been universally confirmed that extending microfinance to women alone or more than men will benefit the society more than otherwise. What has been observed was that giving more microfinance access to women will definitely empower them, but without examining the implication of that on the African social structure. Also when this is examined in context of targeting the poor, fundamental problem of still defining the purpose of microfinance as poverty alleviation is raised. This study recommends that gender distribution characteristics should not be a determinant of modus operandi of microfinance institutions in Nigeria, but rather the choice of poverty targeting, which is one of its target. Key words: Microfinance, gender, millennium development goals. INTRODUCTION Financing development, especially, in developing economy requires examination of different strategies or options with the hope of adopting that which will optimize the development objectives. This is with a view to properly harnessing resources in the best interest of the poor for purposes of empowerment and subsequent development. The situation has become germane with the emergence and global adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in September 2000. The goals are meant to achieve three basic things; poverty eradication, healthcare provision and environmental sustainability both in the developed and developing countries. In the past, aids and grants from developed nations *Corresponding author. E-mail: adebiyi.abosede@yahoo.co.uk. Tel: +2348037299293. were utilized in addressing the development of the poor in the world, especially in eradicating poverty, ensuring good healthcare and environment. Questions could be asked as to how the new goals would be financed in the developing countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia and others? Most importantly, should the developing nations still wait for aids and grants from the developed nations of the world for the purpose of addressing issues relating to poverty among other matters? There is the need to explore alternative independent sources of financing development apart from the ‘dash’ from the developed nations and the conditional-lending from international banks. To this end, indigenous financing is necessary, among which is microfinance. This mode of financing takes into consideration the capital base and issues of collaterals of individual and groups in the developing countries. Poverty alleviation and people empowerment in the