A Research Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Corporate Management (MBA-CM) of Mzumbe University Dar es Salaam Campus College
The General Objective was to investigate the challenges facing graduate women entrepreneurs in accessing loans from micro-financial institutions (SACCOs) which do not demand collaterals. Specifically the study intended to examine, identify difficulties and challenges facing those graduate women entrepreneurs who are not members of SACCOS when trying to access the loans from the microfinance institutions in Dares Salaam city Tanzania. Finally the study determined the income generated by graduate women entrepreneurs from the businesses they conducted using loans from microfinance institutions in Dares Salaam city Tanzania.
Primary data was collected from a sample of 120 respondents using questionnaires and interviews, while secondary data was collected from various documents from microfinance institutions. After data analysis it was found that, some of the respondents i.e., 37.5% were affected by loans processing time, and 55.83% were not members of SACCOs. Furthermore it was found out that, majority of the respondents have monthly income ranging between Tsh 200,000 and Tsh 300,000 finally it was found out that 58.33% of the respondents lacked essential business education.
It was concluded that, most women are not trained and not members to microfinance institutions SACCOS hence the accessibility to loans and other business services became difficult. Also the policies governing the provision of the loans were not friendly.
In view of the conclusion above it was recommended that; Microfinance institutions in Tanzania need to review their policies in order to enable women access loans and face the requirements of the market demands. Finally, SACCOs should conduct training to members, develop the capacity of the management and other staff in order to face contemporary business challenges with respect to dynamics of the information and telecommunications technology and other technologies.