Factors affecting women entrepreneurs’ financial performance in Kenya

Abstract

The design of this research was descriptive survey research. The researcher targeted a population of 200 but sample 150 was obtained. A descriptive survey research seeks to obtain information that describes existing phenomena by asking individuals about their perceptions, attitude, behaviour or values. The data collected was analyzed using inferential statistics. After the data collection, the researcher was pre-processed the data to eliminate unwanted and unusable data which could have been contradictory or ambiguous, developed a coding scheme by creating codes and scales from the responses which then be summarized and analysed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS). From the findings of the study most women entrepreneurs in the CBD Nairobi are of youthful ages between 26-35 which is the most productive and energetic age group, in this age brackets is when most of the women entrepreneurs start businesses. At this point they have raised some capital from other sources. Another findings is the accessing of credit particularly for starting an enterprise is one of the major constraints affecting women entrepreneurs. Provision of soft loans is the major factor that hinders the women entrepreneurs in running the businesses effectively. They are either illiterate on how to access this financial aid, . Also lack of tangible security is another major blow to the women entrepreneurs in order to have access to any financial aid by the financial institutions who also charge high interest rates hence repayment and running the business at the same time becomes hard. The study recommends that the financial institutions should set some simple ways of accessing the financial facilities for the women entrepreneurs and give them at reasonable rate to enable them to repay with ease. The body of women entrepreneurs should carry out major seminars to educate the women on the major issues in running a business to success. They should also advice the when it is necessary to take loan facility and how to go about it.