Abstract:
The government and other development organisations involved in women
empowerment should endeavour to identify motives behind women entrepreneurship
and challenges encountered by them in order to formulate appropriate strategies and
polices which will address the identified gaps. There was a real need of studying
women from the grounds and involve their effective participation in the studies.
The main objective of the study was to analyse factors influencing women
entrepreneurs in business decisions. The study employed a survey research design to
collect primary data from a sample of 130 respondents who owned and operated
business in Kigamboni Municipality. The quantitative based questionnaire,
observation and secondary data collection tools were used to collect data. Both
descriptive and inferential analysis were done for the aim of summarising the results
and showing the significant relationship among the variables.
The results showed that majority of women were forced to engage in business to
meet their necessary needs for livelihood as there was no alternative employment.
The most significant factors influencing women entrepreneurs in their business
decision were age, education level, marital status, prior occupation, income level,
business sector engaged, form of business ownership, capital invested and the level
of generated profit.
The study found out that the most critical challenge facing women-owned business
was lack of access to credit to finance their capital, stiff market competition with low
price margin and undeveloped market infrastructure in Kigamboni. The study
recommended that the Government should encourage women entrepreneurs to join
and establish group associations for easy access to privileges available to some of
NGOs and public organisations such as government grants which are provided
through groups and. It was recommended for banks and microfinance institutions to
enhance credit facilities which are fit and suitable to women needs.
