| dc.description.abstract | Micro-financing plays an important role in development aspirations of poor countries by
providing opportunity for low income-earners to access affordable financial services, which
commercial banks have deprived them. Women form the bulk of low income-earners in poor
countries; hence micro-financing services provide them with opportunity for economic
empowerment. Although micro-financing schemes have been partnering with women groups
for over 20 years in Kenya, little is known about the effect of this partnership on the socioeconomic
status of women, especially in Kilifi District.
In view of this, the present study set out to assess the extent of empowerment of women
through micro-financing in Fumbini Location of Kilifi District. Specific objectives included:
assessment of the variation in socio-dernographic attributes of women; examining the level of
participation in IGAs; assessing the effect of micro-financing services on empowerment;
establishing the effectiveness of micro-financing services in terms of accessibility and adequacy;
as well as examining the role played by women groups in accessibility of micro-finance services.
The study applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches to source, process and analyze
the requisite data. The data were collected using a survey questionnaire and in-depth interview
schedules from women and group leaders respectively. The SPSS computer package was used to
generate frequency distributions and percentages, OLAP Cube reports as well as cross-tabulations with
Chi square statistic, which was used to test statistical hypotheses.
The study found that both the funded and the unfunded women portrayed near similar socioeconomic
attributes including age, marital status, number of dependants and level of education.
The similarity of baseline characteristics provided opportunity for the researcher to attribute net
change in indicators of empowerment to micro-financing intervention. The study further noted
that there was no significant variation between funded and unfunded women in terms of
amount of capital invested. However, variation was noted on the type of IGAs, where funded
women concentrated on relatively high potential ventures. Micro-financing was an important
source of capital for funded women, as it accounted for over 80% of invested capital. The study
also found that there was no significant statistical association between the funding status and
average monthly income, number of meals taken in a day, frequency of hunger in the past year,
number of children dropping out of school, ownership of land and ownership of a cow, leading
to non-rejection of the null hypotheses. Additional findings indicated that although women
groups played a crucial role of linking women with micro-financing schemes, they faced critical
internal and external challenges, which included inadequate management capacity and high
rate of IGA failure. The study concluded that micro-financing had not made significant
contributions in the empowerment of women in Fumbini Location.
The study recommended the need to encourage more women to form groups to enable them
benefit from micro-financing; the need to promote functional partnership between more
women groups and micro-financing schemes; and the need to provide more training to women
in key skill areas. Additional recommendations focused on the need to increase the amount of
resources provided as loans; the need to encourage women to utilize modern family planning
methods to reduce dependence burden in future; and the need intensify poverty reduction
efforts in Kilifi District. Further, the study recommended further studies on the role of merrygo-
rounds in resource mobilization, factors fueling dropout rate among girls, situational analysis
of women's property rights and perceptions of men regarding women's participation in group
activities. | en |
