Factors Influencing Performance Of Persons With Disabilities In Micro And Small Enterprises In Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

The current study sought to investigate the factors influencing the performance of people with disability in small and medium enterprises in Bungoma County. The study‟s objectives were to: explore the characteristics of small and medium enterprises owned by people with disability; determine how awareness and perception of policy and regulations influence the performance of people with disability in small and medium enterprises; find out the types of small and medium enterprises owned by people with disability; determine the technical and credit support accorded to people with disability; and lastly investigate the performance of small and medium enterprises owned by people with disability. To achieve these objectives the study adopted a descriptive research design. Qualitative information was obtained using a questionnaire as per the selected sample of fifty persons with disability residing within Bungoma Municipality. While supplementary data qualitative was obtained from six key informants and all these was analyzed together. Majority of respondents had not received any business credit from either the County Government or the National government and even information on different regulatory frameworks they are not aware. It‟s recommended that the Bungoma county government should come up with policies and regulations that will support people with disability to engage in small and medium enterprises. The county government should also come up with programmes that should encourage the growth of SMEs owned by people with disability in regard to registration of their businesses, licensing fees so that they remain focused and geared towards expanding their businesses from survivalist nature to bigger enterprises. People with disability should also be encouraged to diversify their businesses so that they can attract a bigger market share and lastly policy makers should also provide technical and credit support to this group of business persons such as training opportunities, access to loan facilities through banking institutions, Women Empowerment Fund and Youth Enterprise Fund among others. Short courses for people with disabilities should be designed so that they acquire management skills and competencies necessary for proper management of their enterprises.