Page 1 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 07
August 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 380
Challenges of Women Entrepreneurs in a Developing Economy: A
Case Study of Abeokuta City of Ogun State, Nigeria
Jegede Charles Temitope (PhD)
Institute for Entrepreneurship and Development Studies Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife,
Osun State, Nigeria.
Email: charlesjegede@gmail.com
Abstract
Women entrepreneurs play a vital role in all
economies of the world. In the United States
of American, companies owned by women
provide 12million jobs while a growing
number of small and medium scale
companies are owned by women
entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Despite these contributions of women
entrepreneurs, they are many problems
facing them in their entrepreneurial
activities.
Thus, this study aims to investigate the
challenges facing Nigerian women
entrepreneurs in Abeokuta City of Ogun
State and recommend solutions to
ameliorate the problems.
The study concludes that government should
encourage women entrepreneurs and
provide sound and conducive business
environment for women entrepreneurs
through provision of access to capital,
infrastructural facilities that will enhance
women’s participation in entrepreneurial
activities.
Keywords: Business Environment,
Challenges, Economies Employment
Growth, Entrepreneurial Activities, Women
Entrepreneurs
Introduction
Throughout the world, women-owned firms
typically constitute between one-fourth and
one-third of the business population while
women entrepreneurs in both developing
countries and developed countries share
many characteristics, many more women in
the developing world remain illiterate and
live in poor rural countries.
Nigeria women entrepreneurs experience
gender divide and continue to face a lot of
challenges as a result of patriarchal practices
which situate women in a subordinate
position to men (Woklie and Andersua,
2004).
In many African societies women do not
enjoy the same opportunities as men. In
many transitional economies, progress has
been achieved in opening doors to education
and health protection for women but
political and economic opportunities for
women entrepreneurs have remained
limited. There are a variety of challenges
facing women entrepreneurs to upgrade their
production continuously. These include poor
access to market information, technology
and finance, as well as poor linkages with
support services and an unfavourably policy
and regulatory environment (UNIDO, 2001).
Although many of the constraints are shared
by women and men entrepreneurs, women
Page 2 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 07
August 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 381
entrepreneurs face additional obstacles; this
is due to deeply rooted discriminatory socio- cultural values and traditions embedded,
particularly in the policy and legal
mechanism.
It is against these background problems that
this study assesses the challenges facing
women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Objectives of the study
The objectives of this study are to
i. review existing literature on
women entrepreneurs
ii. examine the roles of women
entrepreneurs in Nigeria; and
iii. assess the challenges facing
women entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Literature Review
Concept of Women Entrepreneurs
Ukonu and Tafamel (2011) define women
entrepreneurs as a wide range of women- owned / run enterprises. A woman-owned
business in USA is defined as a small
business that is at least 51 percent owned,
managed and operated by one or more
women. Okojie (2006) refers to women
entrepreneurs as those women who are in
involved in starting and owing a business.
According to government of India, women
entrepreneurs as a wide range of women- owned and controlled by a women having a
minimum financial interest of 15% capital
and giving at least 5% of the employment
generated by the enterprise to women.
Differences between Women and Men
Entrepreneurs
While gender was shown not to affect in
even venture performance when preferences,
motivation and expectations were controlled
for the differences observed among men and
women entrepreneurs were observed by
different researchers. Among these
Shane(1997) identifies that men had more
business experience prior to opening the
business and higher expectations; women
entrepreneurs had a large average household
size: the educational backgrounds of male
and female entrepreneurs were similar;
women were less likely than men to
purchase their business; women were more
likely to have positive revenues: men were
likely to own an employer firm: female
owners were more likely to prefer low risk
/return businesses; men spend slightly more
time or their ventures then women.
Malaya (2006) tries to distinguish male and
female entrepreneurs with respect to their
success indicators arranged in a sequential
order from very important to least important.
The following table illustrates this.
Table 1: Male vs. female entrepreneurs
Male Female
Generating revenues / profits Generating revenue / profits.
Providing quality / service to customers Providing quality product /service to
customers.
Being able to balance work / family
responsibilities.
Providing employment to people.
Having regular sources of livelihood. Being able to balance world family
responsibilities.
Page 3 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 07
August 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 382
Providing employment to people. Being able to utilize talents / skills.
Gaining financial independence and provide
adequate family support.
Taking advantage of business opportunities
and gaining financial independence.
Source: Malaya (2006)
Women Entrepreneurs
Women Entrepreneurs contribute
significantly to the world economy and their
number has grown ever time. The women- owned businesses represent a significant
share of employment generation and
economic growth potential. Women as better
at managing the budget and better at making
key financial decisions that impact the
family such as family education (Women
Bank Group, 2012).
Women-owned enterprises are well- positioned to enhance national prosperity
and to contribute to economic growth and
development. Many are growth-oriented and
increasingly operating firms across all
industry sectors and engaging in global
trade. It is against this backdrop that both
the private and public sectors are innovating
to identify opportunities to promote
women’s entrepreneurship in order to
harness this untapped potential (Carmen
Niethammer, 2013).
ILO (2008) maintains that 70 percent of the
women entrepreneurs currently engaged in
small enterprises started then as small
enterprises and grown them over time.
In Nigeria, the economic activities of most
women are based on the informal sector of
the economy both at rural and urban areas.
The reason may be due to the fact that entry
to informal sector is easy and open to all
categories of people. It includes
hairdressers, fashion designers, beauty and
skin sailors, crafts making etc. Most women
entrepreneurs are predominantly in the
informal sector because it does not require
only minimum level of education as in the
formal sector. Secondly, they combine their
activities with domestic responsibility and
third is that it requires little capital to
establish most businesses the informal sector
(Ukonu, ibid).
Roles of Women Entrepreneurs in
Nigeria
Women throughout all ages have made
significant contribution to their communities
and families. In terms of agriculture, men
married many wives many decades ago to
help them in their farm work. Women have
also been involved in small scale medium
scale and cottage enterprises (Alekhuge,
2014).
According to World Bank Report (2003)
women entrepreneurs in small and medium
scale enterprises are the engine of growth;
essential for a competitive and efficient
market; critical for poverty reduction and
play a particularly important role in
developing countries.
Furthermore, women entrepreneurs
contribute to employment growth at a higher
rate than larger firms. The private sector and
in particular women small scale businesses
form the backbone of a market economy.
Women entrepreneurships help restructure
medium and large enterprises by
streamlining manufacturing complexes as
units with no direct relations to the primary
activity are sold off separately. Thus women
