| dc.description.abstract | Micro credit plays a major role in many of the donors' development strategies as a way of
addressing the problems faced by women and empowering women economically.
Women as micro and small scale entrepreneurs have increasingly become a key target
group for micro-finance programmes. However, the knowledge available on the impact
of credit on the women's personal lives is limited and controversial.
The aim of the study was to examine the role of micro credit as a tool for poverty
alleviation and women's empowerment, with particular reference to Nairobi District. The
study has attempted to examine the extent to which micro credit has enhanced the poor
women's existing socio-economic conditions, increased their bargaining power and
investigating whether micro credit has actually changed the social equations in the
households or communities in which they live. The study examined the effect of micro
credit on personal lives and businesses of women entrepreneurs and its effect on poverty
reduction and employment in an attempt to appraise the extent to which micro-credit
programmes have contributed in achieving gender equality for economic and social
growth.
The study was conducted at Gikomba market in Nairobi District. This study employed
stratified and snowballing sampling methods to arrive at the respondents. The target
population comprises businesswomen in Gikomba open-air market who have at one time
accessed loan/credit from a micro finance institution to carry out business activities in
Nairobi. The main tool for data collection was the interview schedule which was
supplemented with key informant interviews and documentary data.
Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to present and interpret the data. Some of
the descriptive statistics that were used in this study were the mean, frequencies and cross
tabulations. The statistical tool used in this study was Pearson correlation co-efficient.
The study found that the respondents' age and business income were not associated.
Majority of the respondents reported that micro credit was beneficial to their businesses.
The benefits of credit to the businesses of the respondents were reported as increased:
number of customers, value of business assets, level of business income and the number
of employees hired. The study found that micro credit is beneficial to personal lives of
the respondents. Micro credit had a positive relationship with women's participation in
household decision-making process, their ability to pay for healthcare services for the
household, their financial contribution to household basic expenses and their financial
support to other family members. However, micro credit was found to have no effect on
the women's ability to purchase family assets and their social status.
Micro credit increases women's employment in micro enterprises. In addition, nucro
credit contributes to indirect employment. The study found that micro credit programmes
do not have an impact on poverty reduction among women entrepreneurs in Gikomba
market as income after credit was found not be associated with increased ability to pay
for education costs, financial support to needy relatives and purchase of property.
However, increased income after credit does have an impact on better housing and
inverse relationship with improved nutrition.
The study concludes that micro credit contributes to women's economic empowerment
through increased level of business income. Micro credit enhances poorer women's
existing socio-economic conditions and thereby altering the gender relations by
increasing women's bargaining power. However, the impact of micro credit is limited by
women's low access to education and skills limiting their ability to diversify into more
lucrative activities, lack of control over household and productive resources, engagement
in a narrow range of low-profit activities. Thus, there is need to address these limitations
for micro credit to effectively contribute to poverty alleviation and women's
empowerment. The study recommends that: (a) microfinance programmes need to
respond to pre-existing social and cultural constraints such as low literacy levels among
girls resulting in limited business management skills and low ability in identification of
lucrative investment opportunities; (b) the full achievement of women's empowerment
requires women to have control over productive resources for greater utilization of
resources, and (c) women in the informal sector should be facilitated for training on
financial and business management and technical skills. | en |
