Influence of micro finance services on growth of women owned enterprises in Kitui central sub-county

Abstract

Micro finance plays a major role in many gender and development strategies because of its direct relationship to both poverty alleviation and to the empowerment of women. Poverty reduction has become the object of unprecedented attention globally since 1990’s. In Kenya and elsewhere, micro finance institutions have been on the rise with micro credits having been portrayed as a way to reach poor people in the development process, meet the U N Millennium Development Goals, and as a new innovative strategy for alleviating poverty. Empirical indications are that the poor can benefit from micro finance from both an economic and social well - being point - of - view. Women in the world account for the highest economic growth through the economic activities they engage in. The failure of many of these women, especially those from the rural areas, to exploit fully the credit facilities offered to them by the Micro finance institutions may influence the growth of women owned enterprises. Thus, this study establish ed the effect of interventions provided by microfinance institutions on growth of women owned enterprises in Kitui Central sub - county, Kitui County. The study was guided by the following objectives: to assess the extent to which access to credit facilities from microfinance institution influence the growth of women owned enterprises; to examine the influence of micro savings from microfinance institutions on growth of women owned enterprises; and to establish the influence of training and advisory services from microfinance institutions on growth of women owned enterprises. There was a positive effect of access to credit facilities from microfinance institutions to g rowth of women business enterprises. The access to loan facilities has the highest association with the growth of women business enterprises compare to other variables. There was a positive association between trainings and investment advisory service and microfinance institutions influence growth of women enterprises. However the association was lower that loan access though it was higher than micro savings. There was an association between micro savings and the growth of women enterprises though it was lower than access to savings and trainings and investment advisory service. The recommendations of the study are that t he financial institutions should increase the amount of loans to th e women enterprises as the data in this study had show n that the loans allocated were not sufficient. This would improve the women enterprises. The leaders in the women enterprises should be trained and advised more on investment as the results in this study indicated that investment advisory was moderate.