An investigation on factors affecting women ownership of tertiary educational institutions in Nairobi province.

Abstract

The research was carried out in order to evaluate the factors affecting ownership by women of tertiary educational institutions in Nairobi Province. In Kenya, women form the majority of the total population and as such they should be seen to take an active role in all sectors - business, education, parliamentary, representation etc. It is worth noting that although they are the majority they have very little say on issues that relate directly to them. Out of 232 colleges located within Nairobi Province 42 are owned by women, 189 by men and one has dual ownership i.e. a man and a woman. This converts to 18% of training institutions that are female owned and 82% owned by men. This is barely a quarter of all Colleges within Nairobi. Data collected was presented using a descriptive analysis. Recommendations and conclusions were drawn from findings that were presented to bring out a picture of the situation on the ground. It is intended that this study would bring out useful insights that will form a base when focusing on involvement and problems of women in business especially educational enterprises. The field data collected indicated that women owning educational businesses face a variety of problems in starting and sustaining their institutions. Many of them cited finance as a major problem because they could not save enough to start the kind of institutions they desired to own. 'Other problems identified were marketing, stiff competition from illegal colleges, high students drop-out rate due to lack of fees, inability to compete favorably with government institutions which are well equipped with facilities and staff, lack of management competencies by those owning and running these institutions. Some owners had plans on how to deal with some of these problems for instance borrow bank loans in order to be able to hire good teachers. This would boost population enrolment and increase returns. Very few colleges had adequately created awareness of their existence and programmes offered, and some had plans to advertise themselves through the media. The research recommends establishment of information centers catering for the needs of women entrepreneurs. The government needs to be more involved in enabling women secure financing through non-governmental organizations to boost their businesses, since majority had problems raising acceptable collateral demanded by banks.