A study of the effectiveness of approaches used by development programs in the provision of business development services to micro and small enterprises in Makueni district

Abstract

There has been an interest of BDS for MSE development and an increase of both BDS providers and facilitators in the country. However, there is a gap between what these programs’ priorities and what the MSEs require for their growth. The programs have continued to offer BDS but the impact has not been felt due to possible outreach and approaches used. It is therefore important to establish how the programs are designed and the approaches used and why the MSEs are not accessing the services. This study therefore focuses on the effectiveness of the approaches used by development programs to provide BDS to the MSEs in Makueni district in an effort to reduce poverty and create employment opportunities. The study sort to achieve the following objectives; to identify the approaches development programs are using to provide BDS to MSEs in Makueni district and determine the effectiveness of these approaches in providing BDS to MSEs in Makueni district.

The descriptive research design was adopted with a focus on both qualitative and quantitative characteristics and status of the BDS facilitators in Makueni district. The study was a census survey in population of four organizations namely Agri- Business Development Component, Value Chain Based Matching Grant, Kenya Industrial Estates Ltd and Kenya BDS. Data used was collected using structured questionnaires. The data was coded and analyzed using SPSS. The results of this study provided empirical evidence that the approaches providing BDS to MSEs in Makueni district are effective.