Access and impact of devolved funds on enterprises owned by women and the poor: A case study of Gatundu South sub county

Abstract

This research project seeks to examine access and impact of constituency women enterprise fund and poverty eradication commission revolving fund on enterprises owned by women and the poor in Gatundu south sub county in Kiambu County. Despite efforts by the government to promote enterprises through provision of funds, a number of challenges such as inadequate finances or capital due to lack of collaterals to secure the loans, difficulties in transport and marketing, perishability of primary products or commodities still exist. The main objective of the study is to investigate accessibility to Constituency Women Enterprise Fund and Poverty Eradication Commission Revolving Fund and examine their impact on enterprises owned by women and the poor. The study uses primary data based on 80 groups and probit models are used to analyse the relationship between access and impact of devolved funds and enterprises owned by women and the poor. The study offers important insights for the rural enterprise development and poverty reduction. The results of the study show that CWEF and PECRF plays an important role in improving the lives of rural women and the poor and calls for policy makers to improve on management of the devolved funds. Duration of group existence, collateral and gender had significant effects on access to funds while PECRF had significant effect on enterprise development. The study gave a number of policy recommendations: conducting training to capacity build for groups, train citizenry on what is required of them to access funds and upscaling of CWEF and PECRF to reach more groups.