Microfinance Services On Women Entrepreneurship In South Western Uganda: A Case Study Of Kisoro District

ABSTRACT

The study sought to examine the Micrqflnmwe services on women entrepreneurship in South

Western Uganda: A case stud~v of Kisoro District. The study objectives were; to assess the

effects of microfinance services on women entrepreneurship in Kisoro District, Uganda, to

investigate the business challenges facing microfinance services on women entrepreneurship

in Kisoro District, Uganda and to examine the various financial strategic practices that micro

finance institutions use to ii~fluence women entrepreneurship in Kisoro District, Uganda. The

study used a cross-sectional research design. The qualitative approach was used to collect and

ana~v~e data on the study topic. This design was used because It brings out clearly the

relationship between the two variables. The study was spec~ically non-experimental because

the researcher wanted to describe and make observations ofwhat the real results would befor

purposes ofmaking decisions based on thefacts to improve the situation. The target population

was 110 and it comprises of 8 officials from Microfinance Institutions in Kisoro, 35 Women

Entrepreneurs and 67 Local peasants. The rational was that all the above are stakeholders.

Target population refers to the cumulative elements of study from an environment in which

b~fornutiion is gatheredfroin. The sample si2e ofthe study consisted of104 oftarget population

and is determined through purposive and random sampling methods. Data was collected oin

primaly and secondaiy sources using questionnaires and interviews. After collecting data, the

researcher organized well-answered questionnaires data was edited and sorted for the next

stage. The data was presented in tabularform, pie charts and bar graphs withfrequencies and

percentages. The study findings revealed that 39(’39.8%,) strongly agreed and 21(21.4%) of

them agreed, and 14.3% of the respondents are neutral, 9(9.2%,~ disagreed while 15(15.3%,)

of them strongly disagreed as indicated. Therefore, this means that a sign~ficmmt number of

respondents generally agreed with the view above that when women get access to financial

services, many are able to invest in their talents by starting or expanding their own businesses.

The stu~v concludes that these are organizations se~,fselected best practices or lessons learned

utilizing criteria that could be positively be shown to promote and sustain good practices in

advancing women empowerment. The study recommends that microfinance institutions should

consider giving loans without strict conditions such as high guarantees and strong background information. This was so since women cited the above conditions before given loans.