Women play a crucial role in the economic development of their families and many of them turn to be an entrepreneur for support in the times of financial hardships. However, negative factors such as poverty, unemployment, low income and societal discriminations especially in most of the African developing countries have hindered the effective performance of that role. Women Entrepreneurship has been discovered as an effective strategy for reducing poverty in Africa. Yet, we have also come upon that women entrepreneurs do not have access to microfinance services for their entrepreneurial activity. As such they have low business performance than their men counterparts, whereas the rate of their participation in the informal sector of the economy is higher than that of males, and the facilities of having access to microfinance could have positive effect on enterprise performance.
There has been a historical increase in the number of female entrepreneurs in Africa. Today, women are currently involved in micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) and hence engaging in several forms of trade in almost different parts of the country. In developing countries, the policy makers and practitioners consider this trend as crucial for socio-economic growth. This is due to the ability to enhance the living standard of the individual as well as for the society as a whole. For instance, in Nigeria, the women are bread winners who financially run their families, provide support to their spouses and relatives. Female entrepreneurship has become an important source for economic growth. The Nigerian government has engaged with various economic policies which would therefore ensure economic independence. The micro financing policy is one of the policies that the Nigerian government has formulated to encourage growth and development of MSMEs.
As women are having financial problems, micro financing is considered as one of the tools which can be used to encourage female entrepreneurship. Microfinance has been looked upon as an initiative for poverty alleviation. Microfinancing has demonstrated success in various parts of the world. For instance, in Tanzania, the women have concluded that microfinance has reached the targeted community and also improved the overall economy of Tanzania.
The decision to exploit the opportunity leads to the quest for micro-finance; that is acquisition of resources. As such, leading to opportunity for entrepreneurial activity; that is new business or business expansion. Economic development is a highly complexed, multi-faceted phenomenon, which is why it requires all citizens to contribute to its success – and that means empowering women in order to ‘help them help themselves’.
Partnering with NanoBNK
NanoBNK has been committed to financial inclusion for the past 3 years. By providing financial institutions with microfinance solutions, our company is enabling the unbanked populations, especially women to benefit from financial products and services.
