Influence of Microfinance Institutions on Empowerment of Women: The Case of Masinga Sub County, Machakos, Kenya

The study sought to examine the influence of micro finance institutions on empowerment of women in Masinga Sub County, Machakos County. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design which emphasizes on measurement, examination and analysis of relationships amongst various variables. The findings showed that the level of engagement of women with micro-finance institutions in the study area has empowered women to some degree. The study found that level of success of micro-finance enterprises highly depended on the level of training offered by the MFIs. It was also found that financial knowledge and education of women is a barrier to accessing loan facilities from micro-finance institutions. Regression results yielded a variation of 62.1% between the dependent and the independent variables. It was therefore concluded that when level of engagement; success of micro-finance institutions; challenges in operationalization are jointly addressed, women economic empowerment would be realized by a significant margin. The study recommends that the government and policy makers should ensure that there is a level playground while inducing incentives that will nurture MFIs in bridging the gap left by formal lending institutions. This is through offering affordable loans to empower women entrepreneurs. The study recommends that MFIs should build a comprehensive training programme including entrepreneurship and credit accessibility which will create a general perspective on women in business in order to empower them holistically. The study recommends a bigger sample size to generate more elaborate findings for future related studies.