dc.description.abstract | This study is a socio-economic analysis of the
activities of women entrepreneurs in Nairobi's informal
sector with specific reference to the market women.
The main objectives of the study were (a) to examine
the background. characteristics of the women
entrepreneurs in relation to their age, level of
education, family size and so on; (b) explicate the
factors that motivate the women to engage in informal
income generating activities; and (c) to examine the
nature of enterprises set up by the women with special
emphasis on, the structure of enterprises in relation
to investment, employment and development of
entrepreneurial skills.
The study population consisted of women
entrepreneurs currently operating small scale
businesses in Nairobi. At the time of study there were
approximately 1045 women officially located in 22
markets of Nairobi city.
The findings of this research indicate that the
majority of the women in the informal sector in Nairobi
are of low socio-economic status. Consequently, their
attempt to engage in small scale business is seen as a
step towards improvement of their survival and
alleviation of extreme marginalization. Most of the
women start their business with very little capital put
together from personal savings. Few of them, however,
use available credit facilities such as loans to
operate. This is largely because they have no access
to credit from financial institutions. Capital
formation is a very slow process because even after the
women establish their businesses, they remain unable to
exploit available resources to obtain loans. This is
because they lack the necessary security. The women
are basically lacking in education and general
awareness about entrepreneurship in the context of the
larger modern socio-economic set-up. This often
hinders them from gaining the courage to approach
organizations to finance them for fear that they may
easily lose their small businesses to the lenders.
Thus, they prefer to operate on very little capital.
Inevitably they often replicate existing businesses
causing very stiff competition among themselves.
Naturally, this lowers the rate of wage employment in
the informal sector because most of the women
entrepreneurs cannot afford to engage labour. Those
who employ, do so on casual basis.
In the light of all this, this study argues that
women need to be educated on such important
entrepreneurial skills as management, borrowing loans
to finance their businesses and making sound investment
decisions. This would, in turn, mean investing in
diverse types of business rather than congregating in a
few such as dressmaking, hair making and kiosks.
Consequently, there would be reduced competition in the
businesses operated by women in Nairobi and creation of
more wage employment in the informal sector. Capital
formation would also be a fairly faster process and at
a reasonably low cost. However, for all this to occur,
policy makers need to redefine entrepreneurship with a
view to increasing the productivity and efficiency of
those engaged in the informal sector because, as this
study argues, this sector is a major, vital and
integral part of the Kenyan economy. | en |