Abstract
The reviews of the balance sheet of commercial banks showed that loan item constitutes the largest portion of bank's assets. Although the sector has highest rate of profit, it possesses the greatest risk. Identifying factors that can contribute in lifting-up the loan repayment rate of customers of Hawassa district commercial bank is the major goal of this study. A sample of 183 customers who took loan from October, 2005 to April, 2012 was taken from the bank record. Kaplan-Meier estimation method and univariate Cox proportional hazard model were applied to identify factors affecting bank loan repayment rate. The result from Kaplan-Meier survival estimation revealed that the loan repayment rate is significantly related with loan type, and previous loan experience, educational level and mode of repayment. The log-rank test indicates that the survival probability of loan customers is not statistically different in repaying the loan among groups classified by sex. Moreover, the univariate Cox proportional hazard model result portrayed that educational level, having previous loan experience, mode of repayment, collateral type and purpose of loan are significantly related with loan repayment rate of customers commercial bank. Hence, banks should design loan strategies giving special emphasis on the significant factors while they are giving loans to their customers.