Microfinance Interventions and Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs Rural Constituencies in Kenya

Abstract

Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) provide its members with financial and social intermediation services to help improve their businesses. Despite a multitude of studies devoted to the topic, the effect of microfinance intervention on the empowerment of women entrepreneurs in rural constituencies remains largely unexplored in Kenya. This paper seeks to bridge the gap by establishing the effect of microfinance interventions on empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Mogotio Constituency in Kenya. It focused on three specific objectives to: determine the effect of micro credit on empowerment of women entrepreneurs, examine the effect of micro savings on empowerment of women entrepreneurs and, finally establish the effect of training on empowerment of women entrepreneurs. The paper adopts a causal survey research design through which 80 members of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the study area were selected and data collected from them using a structured questionnaire. Linear multiple regression was used to determine the MFI intervention constructs that affected micro finance intervention. SPSS was used to generate the frequency distribution.  Results show that except for microfinance saving, other MFI interventions such as microfinance credit and microfinance training significantly and positively affect empowerment of women entrepreneurs.  The study makes policy recommendations to guide development of microfinance interventions that are beneficial to the clients and other stakeholders of the MFI institutions.

Keyword: Microfinance Interventions, Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs;  Constituencies in Kenya.