Entrepreneurship Education and Growth of Women Groups’ Businesses Funded By Women Enterprise Fund Meru County, Kenya
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Date
2020
Authors
Anampiu, Gatimba Jane
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) is one of the efforts of the Kenyan government to
empower women through capacity building and funding. The general objective of this
study was to determine the influence of entrepreneurship education on the growth of
women groups‟ businesses funded by the Women Enterprise Fund in Meru County,
Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were to : determine the influence of
financial management skills on the growth of women groups‟ businesses funded by
Women Enterprise Fund in Imenti South, Meru County, Kenya, examine the impact
of mentorship on the growth of women groups‟ businesses funded by Women
Enterprise Fund in Imenti South, Meru County, Kenya, determine the influence of
business knowledge skills on the growth of women groups‟ businesses funded by
Women Enterprise Fund in Imenti South, Meru County, Kenya and to assess the
extent to which innovation affect the growth of women groups‟ businesses funded by
Women Enterprise Fund in Imenti South, Meru County, Kenya In spite of training
and empowerment received by women entrepreneurs, women businesses mostly
remain the way they started without any form of growth or expansion. This challenge
can be attributed to inadequate formal entrepreneurial education that entails formal
conveyance of entrepreneurial competencies, which in return refers to the concepts,
skills and mental awareness used by individuals during the process of starting and
developing their growth-oriented ventures. Lack of adequate entrepreneurial
education among the businesses owned by women and funded by WEF has made
them lack focus relating to opportunity, recognition and creation of new ventures. The
poor growth may be suggested by the lack of creative ability to solve business
problems and innovative ability to grow. The above conerns necessitated this study to
provide information on the influence of entrepreneurship education on the growth of
women groups' businesses funded by the Women Enterprise Fund in Imenti South,
Meru County, Kenya. The target population was business managers, owners, and coowners of enterprises which are funded by the WEF in Imenti South, Meru County.
There are 235 women groups in Imenti South which comprise of 10 to 15 members.
Meru County was purposively picked due to the low capital investment amount from
WEF. Cluster sampling method was used in this study. Sample sizes of 150 (21.27%)
respondents were chosen from the women groups in the sub-county. Data was
collected by questionnaires. Data was analyzed and presented using descriptive
statistics. Some of the findings include: that training on financial management skills
contributed positively towards the growth of women groups‟ businesses funded by
Women Enterprise Fund in Kenya, that 51% of the respondents strongly agreed that
mentorship enabled them to be pro-active and in turn the growth of their businesses,
that though training on business knowledge skills had a positive influence in the
growth of women groups‟ businesses funded by Women Enterprise Fund, the two
major areas of influence were on negotiation skills and focusing goals and finally
over two third of the respondents felt that training on innovation significantly
influenced the growth of women group businesses funded by Women Enterprise
Fund. Some of the recommendations include: that all the members of these women
groups be trained with basics of bookkeeping and final accounts, that WEF and the
County Government of Meru should collaborate and develop an efficient and a
convenient mentorship programs for these women, that the women groups trained on
how to be more strategic when analyzing the market and business opportunities and
the government establish innovation centers for women entrepreneurs to enable them
acquire skills which in return will help them grow their businesses.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in
Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Award of
Degree of Master of Business Administration
(Entrepreneurship) of Kenyatta University
Keywords
Entrepreneurship Education, Women Groups’ Businesses, Women Enterprise Fund, Meru County, Kenya