Women’s Entrepreneurial Competencies and Economic Development: A Review of Literature

Abstract

The success or failure of entrepreneurs has so much to do with the economic development, growth or lack of it in any nation. As a review paper, relevant scholarly views were put to the rigorous test of thoughts and comparisons. The key observations and extrapolations revealed that women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to Nigerian economic development through wealth creation, poverty eradication, employment generation, and basic family support, among others. Several challenges were also observed as delimiting the potential of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, especially the issues of gender inequality, lack of access to finance, inability to gain stakeholders' confidence, technological illiteracy and decrepit infrastructure, among others. The paper concluded that entrepreneurship remains the shortest road to economic liberation for any nation and efforts must be put in place to develop and harness its tenets for the benefit of all, male and female alike. Drawing from the avalanche of reviews, we, therefore, recommend that:

• Government should create more enablers for women entrepreneurs, ranging from training, improved financing, favourable policies and direct supervisory support,


• Women entrepreneurs should personally upscale their basic business management skills, increase their self-efficacy and boldly take opportunities like their male counterparts or even more.