CHALLENGES FACING THE PERFORMANCE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES WITHIN KAJIADO TOWN
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate challenges facing the performance of women entrepreneurs’ in Kenya, specifically within Kajiado town. Women, being the backbone of economies in developing nations and specifically in Kenya, play a significant role to ensure their families’ well being. The study focused on the following two objectives; to establish how access to finances and to determine the challenge of competition on the performance of women entrepreneurs within Kajiado town. The study employed the use of questionnaires to collect primary data, as research tools. The study employed a descriptive research design targeting a population of 218 respondents. A sample of 65 respondents was chosen through simple random sampling. Data analysis was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). From the regression equation, it was revealed that the overall access to finances had the greatest challenge on the performance of women entrepreneurs in SMEs. Competition posed the least challenge on the performance of women entrepreneurs in SMEs. The study concluded that access to finance affected performance of women entrepreneurs in SMEs. It challenged performance to a very great extent because it limited the women entrepreneurs’ ability to take advantage of opportunity as and when they arose. The study further concluded that competition challenged on performance of women entrepreneurs was positive since it led to better customer services in business operations. The study recommended that the financial institutions should set some simple ways of accessing the financial facilities for the women entrepreneurs and give them at reasonable rate to enable them to repay with ease. More and effective competition will reduce opportunities for corruption and creates more space for women entrepreneurs in SMEs to grow and perform better.
Key Words: Access to Finance, Competition, Performance of Women Entrepreneurs, SMEs
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v4i3.507
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