Challenges facing growth of small and medium enterprises owned by women in Kuria west sub-county, Migori county.

Abstract

Most women in the SMEs are the sole bread winners of their families, having lost their husbands to either HIV/AIDS pandemic, drinking related illnesses or political violence. This leaves them with an uphill task of solely bringing up their families which are usually large. Migori County is located 385km South West of Kenya. The area of the study was Kuria West sub-county in Migori County. The research was guided by four core objectives : to investigate whether security influences the growth of SMEs owned by women in Kuria West sub-county in Migori county, to assess how education and technical training influences the growth of SMEs owned by women in Kuria Wes sub-county in Migori county, to examine how access to finance influences the growth of SMEs owned by women in Kuria Wes sub-county in Migori county and to investigate how cultural factors affects growth of SMEs owned by women in Kuria Wes sub-county in Migori county. The research was seeking to understand better the challenges that women face in owning and operating their SMEs businesses to make good returns. The finding of the study should be able to provide strategies and solutions to the challenges facing women owned SMEs.The researcher expects that the findings from the study should help even the general public and entrepreneurs to understand better and make better decision when it comes to investments in SMEs. The recommendations arrived at should help the women in SMEs to come up with simple better and more flexible management skills to make it easy for management. The sample size consisted of 76 SMEs that were owned by women across the four urban centres (Kehancha,Nyamaharaga,Mabera and Masaba) of Kuria West sub-county out of a total of 375 women owned SMEs which are registered by the Migori county government in Kuria west sub-county. The respondents were selected using simple random sampling. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used as research instruments. On validity of instruments, content validity was used. Data analysis technique was descriptive statistics