| dc.description.abstract | Microfinance institutions have been offering help to women who wish to venture into or expand
their business. In Kenya, several of these institutions have come up and small and MicroEnterprise Programme (SMEP) is one of them. The general objective of this study was to
determine the effect of the training and credit offered by SMEP on the performance of
enterprises owned and operated by women entrepreneurs. Specifically, it aimed at determining
whether credit and training in budgeting and bookkeeping, marketing techniques and risk
management offered by SMEP have led to a significant influence on the performance of womenowned enterprises in Nakuru Municipality. The study used survey research design targeting
women enterpreneurs in the area who were working with SMEP. Random sampling design was
adopted targeting 310 women using questionnaires. Data was analyzed using both descriptive
and inferential statistics. The findings reveal that all the variables in the study individually were
statistically significant to the performance of the women owned business in Nakuru Municipality
(z > 1.960; α<.05; df = 309; p = 0.000). Credit and training in budgeting and bookkeeping
offered by SMEP resulted in a positive response; however, there was need to focus more on
training in managing their profit and loss accounts. It was also established that the marketing
techniques of the women entrepreneurs significantly improved after receiving training and credit.
Finally, it was established that credit and training had significantlyreduced the underperfomance
of the women owned businesses in the area and, therefore, needed to be emphasized. The study
concluded that based on the results of the Z-test analysis all the variables of the study were
indeed significant factors to the performance of women-owned businesses in the area. It is
recommended that; training frequency need to be increased by SMEP, more coverage needs to be
made in marketing techniques and risk management; and more emphasis needs to be put on the
conflict management aspect of group dynamics. Further research should also be done to establish
the effect of technology adoption and capital management training on the performance of
women- owned businesses. | en_US |
