This study investigates the empirical link between credit access modalities and the financial performance of women-led micro-enterprises across the conflict-affected states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa in Northeast Nigeria. Utilizing a cross-sectional survey of 382 low-income female entrepreneurs, an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) multiple linear regression model was deployed to test the efficacy of institutional versus informal lending architectures. The diagnostic metrics yield an R^2 of 0.612 (F=59.430,p<0.001), proving that access to microcredit serves as a primary driver of enterprise sales turnover and capital reserves (β=0.385,p<0.001). However, the field findings reveal a stark institutional mismatch: 81.7% of necessity-driven traders are entirely excluded from formal microfinance banks due to patriarchal land-tenure customs requiring real-estate collateral. Instead, they rely heavily on traditional rotating savings networks (adashi). While these informal networks mitigate short-term cash flow pressures, their fixed scale caps long-term capital accumulation. The study concludes that transitioning from asset-backed security frameworks to peer-guaranteed social collateral models is critical for transforming survivalist micro-trading into sustainable economic vehicles.

Keywords: Financial Inclusion, Microcredit, Female Entrepreneurship, Social Collateral, Northeast Nigeria, Resource-Based View.