| dc.description.abstract | The main objective of this study was to establish the impact of Women Entreprise Fund on the
livelihood of women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Kamukunji sub-county, Nairobi. The
Women Enterprise Fund was launched by the Kenya government in 2007 with the principal
objective of economic empowerment of women. A lot of resources have been put in the area of
formal credit and financing without addressing other underling factors that necessities the small
& medium (SMES) survival & growth. The study sought to investigate the influence of Women
Enterprise Fund in improving the livelihood of women entrepreneurs as well as empowering
them. The study had five specific objectives which were to examine the characteristic of Women
Enterprise Fund, the role of WEF in building the capacity of women in business management, to
assess the extent to which micro-credit from WEF has improved business performance, to
establish the level of credit accessed and finally to examine women loanee perception of W.E. F .
The study utilized two theories namely the Rational Choice Theory and the Social network
theory. The site of the study was Kamukunji sub-county in Nairobi. The target populations were
women groups in Kamukunji sub-county. A sample of 40 women responded was selected for
interview in addition to 10 key informants, information was gathered using interview guides and
questionnaires. The study was both qualitative and quantitative, data was coded and analyzed
using SPSS computer package and finding made in the light of the objective of the study. The
study established that livelihood of members improved as evidenced by improved living
standards and improved self- esteem and also came up with challenges faced by the groups
which included long duration of accessing loan and insufficient amount of loan that are granted
which hinders women from engaging in desirable businesses. The study made various
recommendations based on the findings which included the; need to create awareness about the
loan at grass root level, need to increase the amount of loan and need to reduce conditions and
terms of accessing the fund. | en_US |
