A Dissertation Submitted to Mzumbe University, Dar es Salaam Campus College in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for Award of the Degree of Master in Business Administration in Corporate Management
The study assessed the factors affecting the performance of women entrepreneurs who are engaged in different types of income generating activities (IGA) projects like poultry production, soap making, mushroom production, cassava farming, production of cassava flour, farming of vegetables and fruits, cooking of foodstuffs and processing of vegetables and fruits in Mkuranga district. The objective of doing any business is to increase income. Despite the implementation of IGA project in Mkuranga district over four years now, literature reveals that the performance of
women entrepreneurs under IGA project support is still poor as the average show that they earn less than a dollar per day. This is the reason for studying factors affecting these women entrepreneurs in this area.
The study applied cross-sectional qualitative method for data collection including open ended questionnaire, focus group interviews and face to face interviews. A sample of a total of 134 women entrepreneurs was involved to the study. The collected data from questionnaires were summarized and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS). The study applied convenience and judgemental sampling. In view of the samples’ language familiarity, the questionnaires were prepared in both English and Kiswahili. From the findings it seems Lack of market and lack of capital are one of the major constraints affecting women entrepreneurs’ performance. Many entrepreneurs in Mkuranga district have no potential customers for their products and most of them have no access to credit at low interest because you cannot access to credit unless you are a member of a certain group.
The study recommends that, the government, in collaboration with nongovernmental organizations such as IGA project should take reasonable steps to help these women entrepreneurs in Mkuranga district to do business for those products which have more economic advantage. Hence marketing skills training are still required as well as formal market in Mkuranga town is needed.