A Dissertation Submitted to School of Business in Partial Fulfillment for the
Requirements of the Award of Master of Business Administration (Corporate
Management) Degree of Mzumbe University.
The study was about constraints women micro – entrepreneurs face in accessing credit
for business in Nyamagana District, Mwanza city. The study objective was to examine
the “Constraints Women Micro-entrepreneurs Face in Accessing Finance in Nyamagana
District, Mwanza city”
The research design employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to answer the
research problem. The study involved 131 women micro-entrepreneurs and using self
administered questionnaire, interviews were used to gather information from selected
women micro – entrepreneurs and loan officers from MFIs. The data was analyzed
through SPSS and Excel Computer packages.
The findings revealed that women micro-entrepreneurs engaged in several business
activities such as trade, services and farming because they are easy to enter and generate
good profits. They also face three categories of constraints when accessing finance
internal factors (such as limited understanding of benefits of micro – finance), socio –
cultural constraints (absence of time to think and plan their business, negative beliefs
and attitude about women traditional roles) and government policy constraints (absence
of affordable finance programs).In order to overcome these constraints, they obtained
loans from relatives and friends, sale of personal assets and acquiring assets or goods on
short return credit. Women micro-entrepreneurs suggested strategies to gain easy access
to finance through formation of SACCOS, formation of women enterprise fund and
starting donor initiative schemes.
The study recommended the starting of more lucrative businesses with potential to grow
such as small cottages and agro based industries, training on entrepreneurship,
sensitizing the public about role of women in modern society and start of government
supported micro-enterprise funding program. It also suggests areas for further research
such as extensive studies in other districts regions prior generalization and effect of
MFIs on development of micro enterprises.