Influence of Women Enterprise Fund Project on Socio-economic Development: a Case of Lurambi Constituency, Kenya

Abstract

This research project established the influence of women enterprise fund project on socio-economic development: a case study of Lurambi Constituency .The study discussed the extent at which accessibility of women enterprise fund program influences socioeconomic development; influence of its implementation on socioeconomic development; influence of loan uptake on socioeconomic development and to establish how the women enterprise fund project policies and procedures influences women enterprise contribution to socioeconomic development. The study was conducted in Lurambi Constituency to a sample size of 100 women beneficiaries. Various literatures have been reviewed during the study. Self-efficacy theory and resource based theory have been used to inform the theoretical framework. A descriptive research design has been employed and questionnaires have been used as a tool of data collection. Reliability and validity of the tools tested using the ANOVA. The collected data was analyzed by both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive analysis involved frequencies and percentages for demographic data of respondents. In addition, means and standard deviations were employed across all variables (independent and dependent variables). Inferential statistics in form of correlation and multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis. The study used Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) by use of F statistics to test overall significance of the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable at 5% level of significance. In addition coefficient of determination (R2) has been used to test the strength of each independent variable on the dependent variable. It was found that women enterprise fund project has influence on socioeconomic development in Lurambi constituency. Research found that most business growth was due to borrowing and those who had benefited from the women enterprise fund project had improvement in their livelihoods. The research findings showed that 6 (7.4%) respondents agreed that they had borrowed from women enterprise fund program. Those who strongly agreed that they have borrowed from WEF were 75 (92.6%). The research findings showed that the majority strongly agreed that they had borrowed from WEF hence making Women Enterprise fund accessible which in turn allows customers to borrow and inject money in case of loans to their businesses. It was also established that most of the respondents agreed that their income had improved with 36 (44.4%) and 45 (55.6%) agreed and strongly agreed respectively that their income had improved. This is therefore a clear indication that the program is accessible, being implemented and is in existence with positive change in livelihood. It was also found that most of the respondents strongly agreed they had seen people borrowing which were 42(51.9%) and 39(48.1%) agreed on the same. And because of this, 75(92.6%) agreed that business was due to borrowing from WEF, 4(64.9%) strongly agreed their business growth was due to borrowing from WEF and 2(2.5%) disagreed. This means that the majority of the cases alluded to the fact that business growth is due to borrowing and with business growth, socio-economic development is seen to record improvement. On women enterprise fund project policies and procedures influence on socio-economic development, it was established that majority of the respondents, 48 (59.3%) agreed that there are policies and procedures to be followed laid by the WEF, 30 (37%) respondents strongly agreed, 2(2.5%) and 1(1.2%) disagreed. The research findings further indicated that 49(60.5%) respondents strongly agreed that WEF policies encourages borrowing, 31(38.3%) agreed and 1(1.2%) strongly disagreed. This means that the policies in place are favorable hence encourages borrowing by the women hence their influence.