Influence Of Micro Finance Services On Growth Of Women Owned Enterprises In Kitui Central Subcounty.

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 UN 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 pointof-

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 established 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 growth 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 the financial institutions should increase the amount of loans to the

women enterprises as the data in this study had shown 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.