| dc.description.abstract | Several attempts have been made by the government of Kenya towards poverty
eradication and the creation of wealth. Most notable of these attempts is contained in
Sessional Paper No. 2 of 1992 entitled "Small Enterprise and Jua Kali Development in
Kenya. This paper provided a comprehensive framework for the promotion of small
enterprises and Jua Kali development in Kenya. This was geared towards improvement of
the existing policy and regulatory environment, gender specific issues, policy measures to
improve access to credit facilities, and measures to improve provision of nonfinancial
promotional programmes. In spite of the several milestones made in some of these areas,
gender issues relating to provision of credit have not been conclusively tackled. The main
purpose of this study thus was to explore the factors influencing the provision of women
entrepreneurs by MFIs in Kenya. The specific objectives include; to identify the
determinants of microcredit provision to women entrepreneurs by MFIs in Kenya. This
study adopted explanatory research design. The scope of this study was the MFIs in
Kenya. The study sought views of registered MFIs in Kenya.
Stratified random sampling was used to come up with a representative sample size.
Secondary data was gathered from authoritative sources including books, published
articles, and on-line journals. Data was collected by use of questionnaire method. The
questionnaire had structured open and closed ended questions. It comprised of two
sections. The first part sought to obtain general information on respondents’ profile. The
second part was devoted to the identification of determinants of micro credit
provision to women entrepreneurs by MFIs in Kenya. The data was collected through
questionnaires edited, classified, coded and tabulated in a systematic manner to allow for
accurate analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to generate the
outputs. Tools of descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the data.
Reliability test was done by use of cronbach’s alpha test. Multiple regression analysis
was used to establish the predictive power of the study model. The findings were then
presented in form of summarized tables with percentage scores, statistical mean and
standard deviation together with outputs of inferential statistics.
As relates to the influence of women savings mechanisms on microcredit provision to
women entrepreneurs by MFIs based on specific variable measures, the study found out
that poor product design by MFIs, lack of freedom and bargaining power by women and
the relegating status for women to position of subordinates in resource management had
the greatest influence on micro-credit provision to women entrepreneurs by MFIs in that
order. On the influence of interest rates regulation based on specific variable measures,
the study found out that the set high return on equity, high debt service chargeable on
microloans and low monthly rates of return on capital in that order had the greatest
influence on micro-credit provision to women entrepreneurs by MFIs. Interest inelasticity
among micro-finance consumer loans, slow portfolio growth by MFIs together with low
returns on agricultural investment and weak institutional growth and performance were
also greatly influencing micro-credit provision to women entrepreneurs by MFIs in
Kenya. Lastly, terms of payment, the lending base, the prescribed minimum loan
amounts, supplementary services and restriction of credit to specific activities were found
to have greatest influence on micro-credit provision to women entrepreneurs by MFIs in
Kenya. | en |
