Factors affecting the growth of women enterpreneurship in Kirinyaga East District, Central Province, Kenya

Abstract

The growth and development of women entrepreneurship is in line with the government's pursuit for National Development Agenda that seeks to instill rapid and sustained economic growth and reduce the high incidence of poverty through wealth and employment creation. This study therefore intended to find out the factors affecting the growth of women entrepreneurship in Kirinyaga East District. The literature reviewed showed that the factors affecting the growth of women entrepreneurship included; lack of access to finance, training and skills, education, business networks and markets.

The study used descriptive/Survey research design. It was carried on 60 women entrepreneurs who were selected using stratified random sampling and snowball sampling methods. The study adopted questionnaires as the data collection instruments and was administered through the help of research assistants. The data collected was analyzed by the use of descriptive analysis method and presented by use of tables.

The main findings of the study were that the women entrepreneurs were limited in terms of access to resources and therefore they started businesses principally out of economic necessity. Financial availability and accessibility was cited as being one of the major barriers and constraints to women's entrepreneurship growth. The main conclusion from the study was that though credit was available from a number of micro finance institutions the set conditions and terms of payment were said to pose challenges to the women entrepreneurs. The main recommendation from the study was that there is need for the Microfinance institutions and Commercial banks to market their services more widely and make them affordable to the women