Influence of women enterprise fund on performance of small and medium enterprises: a case study of women entrepreneurs in Kisasi sub-county, Kitui county- Kenya

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the influence of Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) on the performance of Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs) among women entrepreneurs in KisasiSub-County, Kitui County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives: To establish how accessibility to credit offered by Women Enterprise Fund influences performance of SMEs among women; to assess to what extent training offered by WEF influences the performance of SMEs among women ; to analyze how sourcing of market by WEF influences the performance of SMEs among women and to establish how networking opportunities provided byWEF influences the performance of SMEs among women in Kisasi Sub - County, Kitui County. This study utilizeda descriptive survey research design and targets all the 96 women groups in Kisasi Sub - County which have benefited from WEF. Simple randomsampling was used to select 30% of the women groups giving a sample size of 30 women groups. Thus a sample size of 30% of the Target population was adequate representative of the study population. A questionnaire with closed-ended items was used. The questionnaire items was five-point likert rating scale of the range of (1-5 for example 1- strongly agree; 2 agree; 3- undecided; 4-disagree; 5- strongly disagree). Questionnaire was administered personally by the researcher, with the help of a research assistant to the selected women groups who filled the data and then collected the filled in questionnaires before leaving each selected group participants. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics that involved frequent distribution, percentages and average values.The findings were presented in frequency distribution tables, mean and standard deviation values followed by explanation of the study results per table.This study concluded that there was poor access and utilization of WEF loans, inadequacy of WEF loans, training about WEF, unreliable markets and limited networks among the women groups which negatively influenced the performance of the women owned SMEs in Kisasi Sub-County.The study recommends that there should be some enhanced and standardized training for all the members who intend to initiate women owned retail enterprises. The maximum loan amount should be increased since the amounts of funds allocated to borrowers fall far below the actual financial business initiation needs. It also recommended that marketing and networking opportunities be enhanced to improve the performance of the women owned SMEs. Finally the suggestions for further related studies on women entrepreneurship through the State initiative in providing Women Enterprise Fund loan facilities were recommended in this study.