Factors influencing accessibility to finance by small scale women entrepreneurs in Sotik sub county, Bomet county, Kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing accessibility to finance by small scale Women entrepreneurs in kipsonoi ward, Bomet County. The study was guided by the objectives, influence of literacy level, number of lending institutions, collateral and interests rate on accessibility of finance by women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward. This study targeted all 100 women operating licenced small businesses in kipsonoi ward. They are found in small market centers. Data will be collected by use of questionnaires composed of open ended and closed ended questions because it will be easy to administer, cheap and less time consuming. Because of few licensed small scale women entrepreneurs in kipsonoi ward sampling will not be done but instead census method is used. The purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing accessibility of finance by Women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward. The study was guided by the following Objectives: a)To establish how level of literacy influence accessibility of finance by small scale women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward d)To assess how the number of lending institution influence accessibility of finance by small women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward. c) To examine to what extend demand of collaterals influences accessibility of finance by small scale women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward. To assess how interest rates influence accessibility of finance by small scale women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward. The study used questionnaires to solicit information in line with objectives of the study. Target population of a survey is the entire set of units for which the survey data are to be used to make inferences. It defines those units for which the findings of the survey are meant to generalize. Piloting was done using split half technique. It was then edited, organized and analyzed using statistical packages for social sciences. The study was done in Kipsonoi ward, Bomet County of Kenya. A questionnaire was used to collect the data and split-half technique was used in piloting of the study. Opinions of experts, peer review were used to check the validity of the instruments and reliability calculated using Pearson’s product moment correlation co-efficient. Data was collected after obtaining a research permit from the relevant authorities. There are 100 licenced small scale women entrepreneurs who are engaged in different kind of business in Kipsonoi ward. Because of small number of small scale women entrepreneurs in Kipsonoi ward, all of them were sampled, census method was used. This study used descriptive survey design. Descriptive survey designs are used when the objectives are systematic or descriptive of facts and characteristics of a given population or sample of the population or area of interest is factual and accurate. In Kipsonoi ward, level of education of majority of licenced small scale women entrepreneurs 53(53%) is primary and below thus literacy level is very low among them, majority of women entrepreneurs 96(96%) in Kipsonoi ward rarely engaged in training,42(42%) of small scale entrepreneurs are in the age bracket of ( 36-40) ,96(96%) does not have any form of collateral and this is one of the factors they cannot access credit finance from lending institution .2(2%) borrow loan very frequently,5(5%) do it frequently, majority of them 90(90%) does it occasionally and 3(3%) rarely borrow loan. 50(50%) have taken an average of one year of repayment,53(53%) who are the majority are of the opinion that they are hardly accessible to any lending institution. Based on the findings, conclusions, recommendations and recommendations for policy formulation were drawn. Recommendations for further research was also established so as to fill the gaps that might have been left out in the research.