| dc.description.abstract | Micro finance plays a major role in many gender and development strategies because of
its direct relationship to both poverty alleviation and to the empowerment of women.Poverty reduction has become the object of unprecedented attention globally since
1990’s. In Kenya and elsewhere, micro finance institutions have been on the rise with
micro credits having been portrayed as a way to reach poor people in the development
process, meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, and as a new innovative strategy
for alleviating poverty. Empirical indications are that the poor can benefit from micro
finance from both an economic and social well-being point-of-view. Studies on micro
finance services and women empowerment in Kenya remain scanty with global empirical
evidence providing contradicting information. The study sought to find out the effect of
micro finance services on women empowerment in Kenya. A survey design was used for
this study which is best used in studies that are set to determine the status quo of given
situation. The target population comprised of women who had been awarded loans from
the MFIs in Kenya in the past one year. Data collections tools that were used in this
study were questionnaires, which were semi-structured and enabled the researcher to
collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The researcher developed the questionnaire
based on the objectives of the study. The sample size in this study was 100 women
chosen at random, 50 women who are clients of KWFT in Nairobi, whilst the remainder
50 women will be chosen from the same micro finance institution in Nyahururu town to
represent the rural women. The study found that micro finance services have positive and
significant effect on women empowerment in Kenya. The study established that micro
finance services provided financial access which provided women with start-up and
working capital, training, savings leading to women engagement in income generating
activities and hence positive outcome on empowerment and women role in society and
decision making. | en_US |
