ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACTS OF MICRO-CREDIT ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN SOKOTO METROPOLIS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Entrepreneurship is generally recognized as the engine of growth of developing countries since it has the capacity to reduce poverty. It is a key factor that helps many individuals, especially women in the promotion of self-reliance and self-esteem (Taiwo, Agwu, Adetiloye, & Afolabi, 2016). Adjei, Arun and Hossan (2015) assert that entrepreneurship is the answer to the economic challenges of most developing countries. These entrepreneurial activities would contribute immensely to the creation of jobs, decrease in income disparity, manufacturing of goods and services in the economy, as well as delivering opportunities for skill development and acquisition. According to Soludo (2014), a healthy economic development cannot be accomplished without setting up well focused and implemented programmes aimed at reducing poverty by empowering the people through access to factors of production, particularly credit facilities. There is a momentous increase in the number of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Women are considered to be the poorest among the hapless. Women are presently involved in micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs). They can be found engaging in various forms of trade in almost all parts of the country. This is because it has the ability to enhance the quality of life and create a long-run enormous wealth, first to the individual and, second to the society at large. And since many Nigerian women are bread winners who financially run their families, support their spouses and relatives, female entrepreneurship has become a welcome development. Several economic policies that would ensure economic independence have therefore been engaged by Nigerian government. A variety of policies aimed at capacity building and utilization has been launched by the federal government over the years. The introduction of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in the early 1980s has increased the poverty rate among the Nigerian women this was because during the privatization of public corporations the women were the foremost to be retrenched before the men. In Nigeria, most of the women found relief in the informal sector after leaving the formal sector which the informal sector is known for its vulnerability and, poverty is high in the shadow economy. Poverty is predominant in the informal economy in least developed nations (Khalex, 2010). The tenacity of the women to snap o the circle of poverty and increase their entrepreneurship level made them initiated traditionally financial services such as the ‘Ayo’ and ‘Esusu.’ However, there is a high risk in these indigenous savings and credit associations because the sector is unregulated. The Nigerian government have initiated a series of empowerment programmes in order to support the women to vanquish poverty.