Women Entrepreneurships’ Development in Imo State, Nigeria, Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

Empirical studies have found that developing countries are mostly affected by the whims of gender discrimination particularly against the women in their quest to be involveld in entrepreneurship activities and other economic ventures. Hence , the need to study Women Entrepreneurships’ Development in Imo State, Nigeria; Challenges and Prospects. Four hundred and fifty (450) women entrepreneurs from Imo State Nigeria were randomly selected from the list of registered women entrepreneurs in the three geopolitical zones of Imo State. A likert scale responses on questionnaire and rating scales were used to obtain the required data for the study. It deployed descriptive statistics and regression analysis for hypotheses testing. Findings reveal that, challenges (CHA) exerted significant negative influence on the women entrepreneurship development (WED) in Imo State, Nigeria. On the other hand, prospects (PRO) is a positive and significant function of WED. Results also reveal that, discriminatory laws and regulations (DLR) (with mean rank of 5.21) happens to be the highest challenge to women entrepreneurship in Imo State. While innovation (INNO) (with mean rank of 7.49) represents the highest Prospects for women entrepreneurship in Imo State. The study concluded that, the strength in the identified prospects will help curtail the gender biases in favour of the women. In all, dismantling of the discriminatory laws and regulations against women will produce the ultimate objective of economic growth and development. Consequently, the future of women entrepreneurship in Imo State, lies in those identified prospects. It recommended that government deliberate support programmes targeting the female folk will aid women entrepreneurship development. Thus, the more increase in participation by females in entrepreneurial activity will provide the required trajectory for development.