An Evaluation of Legal, Legislative And Financial Factors Affecting Performance of Women Micro Entrepreneurs In Kenya

Abstract

Women owned enterprises in the Micro and Small Enterprise sector have been identified as the engine for economic growth and technological innovations in developing countries. Consequently, the Kenyan government has put in place interventions geared towards improving the business environment through appropriate policy frameworks. However, these businesses continue to be dodged with myriad of constraints which include lack of appropriate technology, access to market information, credit, business management skills and rigid legal and regulatory framework among others. This paper aimed at determining the effect of Legal, legislative and financial factors on performance of women enterprises in the micro and small enterprise sector of Kenya. The study specifically focused on two main issues; (a) Determining impact of legal and legislative factors on performance of women micro entrepreneurs and (b) Investigating how the financial sector influences performance of women micro entrepreneurs. The study was based on Embu County of Kenya. A descriptive research design was used to carry out the study. Snowballing technique was employed to select a sample of fifty interviewees. An interview schedule was the main instrument for data collection. Data was analyzed using SPSS software.

The main findings were twofold: (1). There was a very strong negative correlation between legal and legislative factors and performance of women entrepreneurs which suggested that these factors have been too harsh on women entrepreneurs and (2). Financial sector had very high positive correlation with performance of women entrepreneurs implying that the sector had been very instrumental in supporting women enterprises. Major recommendations from the paper is that local councils should reduce license fee as they also listen to women grievances, most of which are very genuine. Likewise, women entrepreneurs need be encouraged to save their earnings however little they are and finally, women entrepreneurs should be allowed to own property and make crucial decisions regarding their business operations. To boost women owned enterprises, further studies have been suggested on effect of mushrooming Business Development Services (BDS) geared towards women entrepreneurs.

Keywords: MSE, women entrepreneurs, micro finance institutions

Institution: Management University of Africa

Gel classification; kpp5