Effect of Financial Inclusion Initiatives on the Financial Performance of Women-Owned Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Kenya

The overall objective of this study was to determine how the financial inclusion initiatives influence the women-owned SMES in Nairobi County. The study sought to answer four important questions which are; does training affect the performance of women owned SMEs in Kenya? Do the lending requirements affect the financial performance of the women owned SMEs in Kenya? Does licensing influence the performance of women-owned SMEs? And does access to financial capital affect the performance of women-owned SMEs in Kenya? The study scope was limited to women owned SMEs within Nairobi CBD. It covered registered SMEs in Nairobi County Government. The researcher selected a sample of 377 SMEs which are owned by women in Nairobi CBD, this was from a population of 6,625 SMEs. The collected data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results of the study showed that the coefficient for Training was 0.78, the coefficient for Lending Requirements was 0.25, the coefficient for Licensing was 0.14, and the coefficient for access to financial resources was 0.97. This meant that affordable finance was the most important variable which affects the performance of women owned SMEs in the Nairobi CBD. This was followed by training and lending requirements and then licensing was found to be the least significant study variables. In conclusion, it was found that affordable access to financial resources and start-up capital have a great influence on the performance of Kenyan women owned SMEs. The study recommended that the government should facilitate women entrepreneurs with start-up capital at low interest rates or credit facilities with lower rates of interest. Women entrepreneurs should be encouraged to seek other lines of credit such as credit in cooperative societies to invest in their businesses. The study also recommends training forums to be organized for SMEs owned by women. Moreover, future researchers should involve different level of people from the parts of the business other than the managers and they should also use different data collection tools. Key words: Financial performance, financial inclusion, licensing, women owned SMEs, lending requirements CITATION: Samuel, H. M., & Mbugua, D. (2019). Effect of financial inclusion initiatives on the financial performance of women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 6 (2), 2052 –2064.