Influence of women enterprise fund training program on the growth of women owned businesses in Mombasa county, Kenya

Abstract

The Women Enterprise Fund (WEF), a Kenya Government Initiative aims to develop and grow women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Eight years since its inception, it is imperative to establish whether the training provided by the WEF is achieving its objectives in influencing the growth of the women owned retail enterprises. This study was be guided by three objectives: i) To assess how group cohesion as entrepreneurship training program influences growth of women owned business. ii) To assess how management practice as entrepreneurship training program influences growth of women owned business. iii) To assess how credit policing practice as entrepreneurship training program influences growth of women owned business. The findings of this research report can give valuable information to stakeholders involved in promotion of women owned enterprises, challenges faced will be understood, information collected will act as literature review for future academicians as well as the achievement of some of the key pillars of the vision 2030. The study utilized a descriptive survey design. The target population for the study was the women trained during the year 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 financial years by the Coast region WEF office. The study sample comprised of 282 women in Mombasa County from 35 different trained groups. The study used questionnaire and focus group discussion with the members for data collection. The instruments validation exercise was done by the supervisor and a pilot study. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to test reliability of the questionnaires used in the study. Raw data collected was organized into themes, grouped, interpreted and presented in frequency tables and cross tabulation. Data analysis was done for descriptive analysis using frequency percentages. The findings were summarized, discussed and conclusion made. The study established that the WEF training program was efficient in improving group cohesion but does not influence the group in increasing the number of activities the groups are involved in. The study also reports that after training there was a positive influence on record keeping as an average 30% increase in the respondents keeping different business records after the WEF training was recorded. This indicates improved management practices but the training had little influence on helping them with business planning documents. The study also established that even after the training around 50% of the respondents continue with the same trend in the credit limit, credit period and the restock level which indicates poor credit policing practices which the training was not able to influence. The researcher has given recommendations based on the conclusions that the women should be trained on how to make a meeting agenda, minutes and follow up of the minutes in the next meeting as this will allow them to have continuity and also make proper use of the meeting time. The researcher recommends entrepreneurial skills equipping programs to be incorporated more into the current curriculum as the training is more inclined on the WEF products. The researcher also recommends more customised training sessions as different groups have different business ventures. From the focus group discussions carried out by the researcher, it was found that the trainer of the WEF training program influenced the women into applying for the program, hence for further research the researcher suggest a study on the role of the trainer of the WEF training program on the influence of the growth of women owned business can be carried out.