Entrepreneurship Education And Growth Of Women Groups’ Businesses Funded By Women Enterprise Fund Meru County, Kenya

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 co-owners 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.