EFFECTS OF MICROFINANCE SERVICES ON EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: A CASE OF KIBERA CONSTITUENCY, NAIROBI COUNTY

Abstract

Microfinance enterprises are actively involved in the provision of financial services and the management of small amount of money through a range of products and a system of intermediary functions that target low-income clients especially women. It includes loans, savings, insurance, transfer services and other financial products and services. The purpose of the study will be to establish the influence of microfinance access on empowerment of women enterprises among the women enterprises in Kibera Constituency. The objectives of the study were; to determine the influence of credit facilities on the empowerment of women entrepreneurs, to determine the influence of micro finance savings on the empowerment of the women entrepreneurs and to establish the influence of micro finance training on the empowerment of the women entrepreneurs. The findings of this study are useful to policy makers and institutions especially those in the microfinance services to develop policy framework which will take care of gender issues in micro financing in Kenya. The information gathered is useful to improve the lot of Kenyan women who form the larger per cent of the total current population of over forty million Kenyans. The study was carried out in Kibera constituency; the target population was women entrepreneurs in Kibera Constituency where the target population was 210. The study deployed the use of Questionnaires to collect data from the respondents. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequency, means, proportions and standard deviation was used in the analysis of the data. Research data was analyzed using Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and the results presented in form of tables, pie charts and bar charts. Out of the targeted 210 respondents, one hundred and seventy-nine (179) responded by completing the questionnaires. This is a response rate of 85%. The researcher recommends that: the government should provide subsidies to microfinance institutions to cover the operational cost and provide the women borrowers financial services with cheap credit; microfinance institutions should increase credit advances and the loan administration process to be made more user-friendly; microfinance institutions should provide entrepreneurial and business skills trainings to women before start operationalizing their microenterprises; and lastly, microfinance institutions should relax or simply procedures for securing loans as well as allowing women to use collateral assets that are readily available to them.