The Impact of Women Entrepreneurs towards National Development: Selected Study on Taraba State

Abstract

Women entrepreneurs have been designated as the new engines for growth and the rising stars of the economies in developing countries to bring prosperity and welfare. Women are at the heart of development as they control most of the non-monetary economy and play an important role in the monetary economy. Despite this recognition and resources made available to promote and develop women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries, women still own and manage fewer businesses than men, and earn less money with their businesses that grow slower. Much of women’s work remains invisible, unremunerated and unrecognized. Women face greater obstacles in accessing credit, training, networks and information, as well as legal and policy constraints. The paper thus seeks to examine the impact of women entrepreneurs in national development, using Taraba state as study. Descriptive and ANOVA f-statistics were employed to analyse the data as well as test the raised hypothesis. Findings from study revealed that the women entrepreneurs who seize opportunities have better control over the affairs of their businesses which implies that capability of women entrepreneurs does affect their financial control. Resources available to women entrepreneurs affect how profitable their business ventures are. This goes to say that for women entrepreneurs to have profitable ventures access to continuous and unlimited resources is essential. The study also revealed that entrepreneurial knowledge of women does affect their access to good marketing networks. Since networks impacts on the performance of women entrepreneurs, their access to continuous learning is essential and vital for their growth and development. Thus, women entrepreneurs are advised to acquire the necessary knowledge needed to access good networks. Women entrepreneurs should develop the inner strength and strong will to channel and control their finances properly

Keywords: Women entrepreneur, financial control, growth and development, and network