| dc.description.abstract | Policies aimed at providing housing to low-income households in developing countries, either directly through the public sector or through promotion of private investment into housing, have not been able to meet the ever growing demand for affordable shelter. In Kenya today, housing requirements outstrip supply. Key factors among many that have contributed to this unprecedented housing shortage include the government's low expenditure on public housing and infrastructure, high rural-urban migration and the limited and high cost of housing finance. The principle objective of this study was to assess the nature of relationship between micro-finance products and shelter financing that is currently being offered by micro-finance institutions (MFIs).
Using both quantitative and descriptive statistics on data from a questionnaire -based survey, the study sought to explore the micro -finance factors together with demographic factors that influence the ability of SMEs entrepreneurs to finance their shelter needs sustainably. Data was collected using questionnaires and participant observation by the researcher. The study had a response rate of 66.22% and data was analyzed using statistical tools which included, cross tabulation and logistics regression.
Key findings of the study indicate that the inability to finance shelter needs by most of the respondents was a result of inability to access micro finance related services as compared to other factors which fall under demographic characteristics. For instance, from the findings the respondents that recorded the highest percentage 83.8% of not being able to finance shelter fall into the category of those that do not have access to emergency loans, followed by 75% of those that could not access personal loans. On the other hand those that comfortably are able to finance their shelter stood at 70.1 % and these have access to emergency loans and personal loans together.
Some key recommendations of this study includes; the government should facilitate the SMEs entrepreneurs' access to loans by lowering the interest rates and that an awareness campaign should be conducted to encourage more SMEs entrepreneurs to join such financial institutions or groups. This report gives suggestions for further studies; that the study be relocated to other provinces and at a different period of time to ascertain reliability of the findings. Also, that the same study should be conducted on another group of professionals, presenting a different social-economic status. | en_US |
