The Effect of Financial Literacy on the Growth of Women-Owned Small and Medium size Enterprise in Bamenda and Buea of Cameroon

Abstract

Women-owned SMEs make up a sizable portion of the Cameroon market and contribute highly to the GDP of the country. Despite the contribution of women-owned businesses in both the formal and informal sector, they still face the challenge of having proper financial literacy levels. This study therefore has as objectives to examine the effect of knowledge on budgetary management, bookkeeping management and debt management on the growth of women-owned SMEs in Bamenda and Buea towns of Cameroon. The study used a cross-sectional research design. Also, to conduct the study, 300 respondents were chosen from women who owned SMEs. A structural questionnaire with 5-point Likert scale was used to collect primary data. multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the effects budgetary management, bookkeeping management and debt management on the growth of women-owned SMEs. Results shows that bookkeeping has a positive significant effect on growth (β=0.542, p = .000), while debt management has a negative significant effect on the growth of women-owned SMEs in Bamenda and Buea (β=-0.264, p = .000). And budgetary management has no significant effect on growth of women-owned SMEs. Therefore women-owned SMEs need to focus more on improving bookkeeping management to increase their growth.