Evaluating the Effectiveness of Business Incubation on Women’s Enterprises for Upscaling

Abstract

The University of Nairobi, Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub (UoN-WEE Hub)’s Women’s Business Incubation (WBI) project is a three-year evaluation program on how women-focused incubation models contribute to the growth of businesses and enterprises in Kenya. The project’s overall objective is to assess the extent to which women-focused incubation models contribute to the growth of businesses/enterprises in Kenya. Through the WBI project, The WEE Hub in partnership with partner organizations including CrawnTrust and TechnoServe is incubating 320 individual women-owned enterprises and 17 women’s collective/group businesses in 16 counties for replication by 2025, with the UoN WEE Hub conducting monitoring and evaluation every six months. The WBI project aims to achieve the growth and expansion of women-owned businesses through the provision of incubation services including; access to credit, linkage to information and technology, Capacity building, market access, and Mentorship. Most importantly, informed policy and policy change are expected to be part of the high-level outcomes. In line with the realization of the access to markets pillar of the incubation project, the UoN WEE Hub facilitated representatives of eight (8) out of the 17 women collectives under the incubation program to exhibit their collectives’ products during the Kenya Food Event and Exhibition held at the Sarit Expo Center between 5th and 7th of September 2023.