Challenges of Women Starting a Business Enterprise in Nigeria
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to determine the challenges of women starting a new business with reference to textile sellers in Lagos Island. The specific objectives include the following;
To examine the factors that motivate women enterprises across different industrial sectors in Lagos Island, Nigeria.
To analyze the relationship between motivation and the performance of women in the SME sub-sector.
To determine the relationship between the factors that motivate women’s enterprise and the challenges they face in start-up businesses.
To examine the relationship between the factors that motivate women enterprises and their type of business ownership.
To determine if there is a significant relationship between environmental factors and women’s entrepreneurial motivation.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
Nigeria holds an unenviable record of having one of the world’s worst poverty record with over seventy percent (120 million people) of the total population of 162 million being poor, living in abject poverty and half of this number are women (Adepelumi, 2011). To control this scourge, several Nigerian government and administrations have adopted and implemented various poverty alleviation programs dating back to oil boom era in the 1970’s and spanning to the current administration. Majority of these policies were specifically targeted at women empowerment. Past attempts to alleviate poverty among women in Nigeria can be grouped into two distinct time frames of Pre/SAP and Post/SAP (Adepelumi, 2011).
Pre/SAP programmes include Operation feed the Nation(OFN), Free and Compulsory Primary Education(FCPE), Green Revolution, Low Cost Housing, River Basin Development Authorities(RBDA), National Agricultural Guarantee Scheme(NAGS), Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme(ACGS), Strategic Grains Reserves Program(SGRP), Rural Electrification Scheme(RES) and Rural Banking Programme (RBP).These programmes were mostly designed with the objectives to assist the Nigerian women in issues such as employment generation, enhancing agricultural outputs, income and reduction of the rural-urban migration tide, which generally contributed to rising poverty levels.
SAP/Post-SAP programmes on the other hand include Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), National Directorate of Employment (NDE)-1986, Better Life for
Rural Women Program (BLP), People’s Bank of Nigeria (PBN), Community Banks Program, Family Support Programme (FSP), Better Life for Rural Women (BLRW).
National Commission for Women (NCW) was established in 1990 to enhance Nigerian women status in entrepreneurship by addressing pertinent challenges deterring their participation in the developmental process of the economy and ensuring that women engage in creative entrepreneurship in cottage and small scale industries. This policy was also established to encourage women participation in cooperative society among themselves both in urban and rural area. Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP) and ex President Obasanjo’s programme on National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) in 2001 with a start –up grant of six billion naira. However, paradoxically, despite the large financial and material resources invested in these programmes, the number of poor women in both rural and urban cities has continued to increase.
Following the inauguration of democratic governance, a separate Ministry of Women and Social Development was established in 1999 to promote and coordinate issues surrounding the welfare of women in line with international standard, among other mandates. It was establish to assist in policy formulation and implementation (local and international) in the course of women development, in-line with their changing role in contemporary society. The Obasanjo administration’s policy framework in support of women empowerment had the following vision: “Mass mobilization of women for national development; strengthening of women societies as vehicle for economic development and political empowerment of women; promotion of greater women involvement and effective participation in politics; and ensuring of greater equity in employment and appointment” (Emmanuel, 2013).
The Women Affairs Department is one of the key operational departments of the Ministry, charged with the responsibility of achieving this vision and generally “to promoting women’s socio-economic and political empowerment”. The Department has three divisions, which work together to achieve the Ministry’s mandate. The divisions are (a)Economic Services and
Women Co-operatives Division (ES)(b)Human Resources and Capacity Building Division (HRCB)(c) Women Organizations Division (WOD) and most of their objectives are focused on women empowerment and capacity building programmmes. This was implemented in collaboration with Women education sections established in Federal and State ministries, charged with the responsibilities to assist women to gain access to education. This result in the building of several girls’ secondary schools across all levels of government.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the procedure used in carrying out this study and is organized under the following sub-heading: design of the study; area of the study; population for the study; sample and sampling technique; instrument for data collection; validation of the instrument; reliability of the instrument; method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Design of the Study
The study employed a descriptive survey design. A Descriptive statistics which include percentage distribution was calculated based on the respondent’s responses for each item on the demographic information of the respondents. This covered their age,religion, business data and their entrepreneurial type of the respondents (Osuala, 2001). The design is suitable for this study because the study will ascertain the opinions of the entrepreneur in the Nigerian economy.
Population for the Study
The population for the study was 206 made up of 57 and 149 registered entrepreneurs and employees of business of women entreprenuers in the six local governments in central senatorial zone of Lagos State.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION
The data generated for this study was statistically analyzed and presented in this chapter. In doing this, the research questions was used as basis for the analysis, interpretation and discussion of results. The findings of the study and discussion of findings are also presented in this chapter.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The level and extent of women entrepreneurship empowerment varies from one society to another. In some society, women do assume complementary role in managing and providing basic needs of their family, while in some instances their role is only supplementary where they are historically restricted to home chores or family up keep (Brush et al, 2009;Mordi, Simpson, Singh and Okafor, 2010; Garba, 2011). The success of women entrepreneurial activity is determined by the type and nature of business environment they found themselves which is subject to a number of factors such as national policies, culture and socio-economic factors (Garba, 2011; Emmanuel, 2013). These factors play significant role in mediating women entrepreneurial challenges in many ways. In Nigeria, many of the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs are traceable to the inferior status of women, their underestimation as economic agents, as well as gender bias embedded in tribal and cultural norms(Brush et al, 2009;Mordi, Simpson, Singh and Okafor, 2010; Garba, 2011).Majority of the financial institutions in Nigeria, channel their loan scheme through formal-sector agencies which often elude the women, even for small loans. For instance the Financial System Strategy 2020 blueprint which is the latest policy planning document on how Nigeria wish to attain her developmental and transformational agenda by the year 2020 does not have definitive statement that addresses the credit dilemma of Nigerian women entrepreneurs or how best to empower them financially (Todaro and Smith, 2009).
Participation of women in cottage and small scale industries can be increased by Government introduction of product/process-oriented courses through National Directorate of Employment (NDE)and other capacity building programmes and workshops(Amuchie and Asotibe 2015).Through public-private partnership, entrepreneurship concepts such as the “Innovative
Entrepreneurship Program for Women” can be introduced to help identify potential business opportunities, enhance marketing skills, develop innovative product, help improve product quality to prevent business failures, address societal problems such as discrimination (customs, religion and society) against women in entrepreneurship and ensures enabling environment in both rural and urban areas for successful start-up and growth of women entrepreneurs in all Women Entrepreneurship ’s thereby creating a new dimension of Women entrepreneurship (Malyadri, 2014; Saskia, 2013).
Women participation in business decision making can be improved through organizing empowerment programmes and seminars on entrepreneurship so as to enhance their access and control over factors of production such as land, capital, labour, equipment, resources and other entrepreneurial competences (Czinkota, 2009;Todaro and Smith, 2009).It is therefore important for government and other development agencies to come up with policy framework that addresses strategic women entrepreneurship issues in the following areas; making resources and facilities available to women associations and forum in other to encourage entrepreneurship involvement and development for sustainable economic transformation through start-up capital policies, supporting women business growth through technical assistance and educational knowledge which will promote positive societal attitudes, enable conducive women participation in entrepreneurship and foster an enabling environment (GEM, 2012). This is line with Emmanuel (2013) suggestion that a serious policy focus, support and commitment by the Nigerian government in promoting women entrepreneurship in every ramification, will be the loftiest idea towards achieving this ambition.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations Driven by the findings in this research, Women entrepreneurship in Nigeria have a long way to go for the sector to be relevant, focused, productive enough, and play the crucial role it is expected to in relation to contributing to the growth and development of the economy of Nigeria. The following are recommendations for making Women entrepreneurship in Nigeria virile and vibrant through the creation of an enabling environment for optimum performance:
- The federal government should establish Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) in every state of the federation, revamp old ones, and make all of them functional.
- It should establish Industrial Parks (IP) in all the 774 Local Government Areas in the Country 77
- The government should establish women entrepreneurship clusters in relevant sectors in areas that have comparative advantage for such sectors
- The government through the Central Bank of Nigeria should establish the much-awaited National Credit Guarantee Scheme for Women starting a business which should guarantee at least 80 percent of loans needed by their enterprises in Nigeria.
- It (the government) should continue to vigorously tackle corruption and bribery and institutionalise transparency, accountability and due process in the conduct of government business.
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