| dc.description.abstract | Small scale enterprises have gained importance
since the first official study of ILO in 1972. The
Government views the small enterprise sector as an
instrument of creating more jobs both in the rural
areas and urban areas. It has shifted its policies in
the favour of small scale industries, in the last one
or so decade.
This study sought to investigate on the
performance of small scale manufacturing enterprises
in an attempt to determine the potential for growth of
these enterprises, in the rural small towns.
This study covered small scale manufacturing
enterprises in the rural areas of Laikipia West
(Ngarua Division). The activities studied were:
tailoring and dressmaking, carpentry, shoe making,
metal fabrication and tinsmith/blacksmith.
Both primary and secondary data was collected .
A variety of simple descriptive statistics were
applied in data analysis. These included averages,
percentages, and cross tabulations. Regression
analysis was used for further data analysis.
cartographic techniques were used for data
presentation and illustrations.
The main finding of this work is that the
performance of small scale manufacturing enterprises
demonstrated that the enterprises performed better at
the start than at the time of study. The overall
employment growth rate (1.3 percent) is far below the
Government expected rate between 3.5 percent and 5
percent. Average monthly sales and profits were
higher at the beginning than at the time of study.
There is a strong relation between agricultural
performance and business performance in the rural
area.
In the light of these findings it is recommended
that to boost the performance of small scale
manufacturing enterprises, there is need to adopt a
more integrated approach. Besides creating an
enabling environment for the enterprises to operate,
the government should step up its public investment in
the rural areas. Such investments should be biased
towards agricultural development . | en |
