Effects of Women Enterprise Fund's Training on Capital and Labour Resources of Women Grocery Micro-Entrepreneurs in Thika Sub-County, Kenya

Abstract

There has been a great attention by the government of Kenya on women entrepreneurship over the last nine years. Several policies have been enacted that could support the growth and performance of women entrepreneurship in Kenya.The Women Enterprise Fund (WEF) was established in 2007 to assist women in the development of their enterprises. One condition of funding by WEF is that beneficiaries must first undergo capacity building before getting the funds. However, the effects of WEF's training remains unexplored in Kenya and in particular Thika Sub-County. This study sought to bridge the gap by establishing the effects of WEF's training on performance of women grocery micro-entrepreneursin Thika Sub-County in Kenya. The study examined the effects of WEF's training on the indicators of performance that is, labour and capital.It focused on two specific objectives to establish the effects of WEF's training on labour among women grocery micro-entrepreneurs and the effects of WEF's training on capital among women grocery micro-entrepreneurs.A cross-sectional descriptive survey research design was used. The sampling technique used wassimple random sampling, since it produced the most productive sample to test the research hypotheses. A sample size of 111women entrepreneurs was used out of a population of 371women entrepreneurs. Data was collected using structured questionnaires from the respondents. The study was guided by the human capital theory. Paired t-test and ordinate logistic regression were used to analyze quantitative data collected at 5% significance level with the help of STATA software. Validity of the instruments was achieved through expert judgement of the research supervisors and WEF's officials. Reliability was tested by subjecting the instruments to a pilot study through the test-retest technique. The study established that the type of training had significant effect on the performance of women grocery micro-entrepreneurs. While the frequency of training had no significant effect on the sales of women grocery micro-entrepreneurs. From the study results, the researcher recommends for the performance of women micro-entrepreneurs to improve drastically WEF has to focus more on providing quality training especially market access skills. It is therefore, hoped that the outcomes and recommendations of this study will be of help to WEF and other women entrepreneurship stakeholders to address the performance challenges in Thika Sub-County and the nation at large.