2015 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
Women’s Participation in Entrepreneurial Activities in Okigwe
Agricultural Zone of Imo State, Nigeria
By
Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke
Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development,
Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria
robertonyeneke@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Women’s involvement in economic development has been recognized as
important especially in the area of entrepreneurship. The study sought to bring
more clarity to this discourse by analyzing women’s participation in
entrepreneurial activities in Okigwe agricultural zone of Imo State, Nigeria. To
achieve this, questionnaire were administered to sixty women selected through
random sampling. An analysis of their responses with the use of descriptive
statistics revealed that the women are mainly young, married, experienced, and
literate, and had moderate household sizes. They also belonged to cooperative
societies with many lacking access to business credit. Thirteen different types of
enterprises were identified and the common ones were garri processing and
palm oil processing. Many problems are associated with women full
engagement in entrepreneurship development. The common one is inadequate
capital. In consideration of these findings, women entrepreneurs need to be
encouraged through enhanced access to business credit.
Keywords: Women, entrepreneurship, Okigwe zone, entrepreneurial
activities, socioeconomic characteristics, constraints
INTRODUCTION
Women’s involvement in economic development has been recognized as
important especially in the area of entrepreneurship. Kuratko and Richard
(2001) defined entrepreneurship as the dynamic process of creating incremental
wealth. This wealth is created by individuals who take the major risks in terms
of equity, time and career commitment of providing value to some product or
services the product or service itself may or may not be new or unique but value
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must somehow be infused by the entrepreneur by securing and allocating the
necessary skill and resources (Sidhu and Kaur, 2006).
Women
entrepreneurs
create
new
jobs
for
themselves
and
others.
Entrepreneurship on small scale is the only solution to the problems of
unemployment and proper utilization of both human and non-human resources
and improving the living condition of the poor masses (Sidhu and Kaur, 2006).
Women in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Nigeria, have been
involved in several entrepreneurial activities especially in agriculture and
related activities.
Entrepreneurs tend to have a number of common traits which include
characteristics concerning creativity, innovation and participation. The topic of
women in entrepreneurship has been largely neglected both in societal
development and in research in Nigeria. In rural areas of Nigeria, particularly
Okigwe agricultural zone in Imo State, Nigeria, empirical evidence remains
largely scanty and devoid of in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic
characteristics of women that influence their participation in entrepreneurial
activities. Also, anecdotal evidence suggests that women have lower
participation rates in entrepreneurship than men. The constraints to women
participation in entrepreneurship development in Okigwe agricultural zone of
Imo State, Nigeria have not been empirically explored. This has created a gap in
knowledge. Filling this gap in knowledge is the objective of this paper.
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in Okigwe agricultural zone of Imo State, Nigeria.
This zone is located on the northeastern part of Imo State, and is bounded on the
west by Orlu agricultural zone, on the north and east by Abia State, and on the
south by Owerri agricultural zone. The topography is flat and gently undulating.
Okigwe agricultural zone comprises of six Local Government Areas (LGAs)
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namely: Ehime Mbano, Ihite Uboma, Isiala Mbano, Obowo, Okigwe and
Onuimo. The populations of the LGAs are presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Population of Okigwe agricultural zone by gender
Local Government Area
Population Female
Okigwe
132237
63005
Onuimo
99,247
47612
Isiala Mbano
198,736
94904
Ehime Mbano
130, 931
63741
Obowo
118114
57964
Ihitte Uboma
120,744
58114
Source: Adapted from National Bureau of Statistics, 2006
Male
69232
51635
103832
67190
60150
62630
A multi-stage random technique was used for the study. All the six Local
Government Areas were used for this study. In each Local Government Area,
two communities were randomly selected. In each community, five women
were randomly selected from the list of women in the communities collected
from the leadership of Women Associations in the communities. In all sixty
women were selected for this study. The main instrument for data collection
was questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Socioeconomic Characteristics of the Women
Age
Age structures of women entrepreneurs are presented in Table 2. The women
were grouped into four age categories, which are: 1) 20 - 30 years of age, 2)
from 31 to 40 years of age, 3) from 41 to 50 years of age, 4) from 51 to 60 years
of age. As shown in Table 2, majority (50.00%) of the women fall within the
age bracket of 31-40 years while 26.67% fall within the age bracket of 51-60
years. About 13.33% of the women were between 31 and 40 years while the
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youngest group of the women entrepreneurs (20-30 years) were 10.00%.
Average age of the women was 45.05 years. This indicates that majority of the
women were young. This implies that the women are in their productive age. In
addition the women are still active to exploit every available technology and
opportunity provided by the surrounding environment.
Table 2: Frequency distribution of the women according age
Age (Years)
Frequency
Percentage
20-30
6
10.00
31-40
8
13.33
41-50
30
50.00
51-60
16
26.67
Total
60
100.00
Mean age= 45.05 years
Source: Field Survey, 2012
Marital Status
Figure 1 presents the marital status of the women in the area. Majority (65.00%)
of the women were married with both partners alive, 30.00% were widowed
while 3.33% were single. This corroborates with the findings of Akerele and
Aishonu (2011) in Yewa North Local Government Area in Ogun where
majority (59.00%) of women were married. This may be because these women
have family responsibilities which make them opt for more money by involving
in various business activities in order to improve their standard of livings in the
society.
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Figure 1: Bar chart showing percentage distribution of marital status of
women entrepreneurs
Source: Field Survey, 2012
Household Size
Household size in the study area is compiled in Table 3 giving an overall mean
of 7 persons. This strongly suggests that the vast majority of households are
complex, with parents and children and excluding grandparents. However,
larger families contain more than one household, with relatives and their
families sharing the same roof and facilities, but cooking separately. Table 3
shows that majority of the women (50.00%) had household sizes of 5-8 persons.
Those that had 1-4 persons in a household constituted 30.00% of the women.
The remaining 20.00% of the women had 9-12 persons in their households. The
mean household size was 7 persons. It is obvious that households whose
membership is large easily enter into many business activities due to readily
available family labour than those with few members (Ahmed, 2012).
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Table 3: Frequency distribution of the women according to household size
Household Size(Persons)
Frequency
Percentage
1-4
18
30.00
5-8
30
50.00
9-12
12
20.00
Total
60
100.00
Mean household size = 7 Persons
Source: Field survey, 2012
Level of Education
The level of education of the women is presented in Table 4. Almost all the
women entrepreneurs (93.33%) received formal education; only 6.67% had no
formal education and are regarded as illiterates. About 21.67% of the women
entrepreneurs acquired secondary education only, 35.00% had primary
education, while a simple majority (36.67%) had tertiary education. The mean
years spent in school by women entrepreneurs 10.75 years. Following this
result, women entrepreneurs could be said to be literates. Education is an
important factor in entrepreneurship development. The level of entrepreneurship
development is expected to have a positive relationship with the level of
women’s education attainment. Few of the women entrepreneurs had no formal
education which hindered their active participation in entrepreneurship
development in the area. The high level of literacy among the women will
increase their business acumen and profitability level. It is therefore noteworthy
that educational level is high among the women entrepreneurs which
undoubtedly affect their active participation in entrepreneurship development
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patterns positively and can be probably explained by the fact that the density of
schools is relatively high in the study area.
Table 3: Frequency distribution of women entrepreneurs according to
educational level
Educational Level Interval (Years)
No formal Education
Frequency
Percentage
0
4
6.67
Primary Education
1-6
21
35.00
Secondary Education
7-12
13
21.67
Tertiary Education
13-17
22
36.67
60
100.00
Total
Total
Mean educational level= 10.75 years
Source: Field Survey, 2012
Experience in Business
Experience in a business is often associated with the knowledge one has about
the business (Anyanwu, 2006). It goes with knowledge in handling a particular
matter. Table 4 shows business experience of the women. As shown in Table 4,
majority of the women entrepreneurs (68.33%) had less than 10 years of
experience in their business, 20.00% had business experience of 10-20 years,
while the remaining 11.67% had business experience of over 20 years. Average
business experience was 9.67 years. This shows that the women entrepreneurs
were quite experienced in their businesses and are likely to adapt well in the
light of changing business environment. Firm size may be associated with some
other factors that are inherent in experience such as management skill and
technology, and the effects of policy environment. This also suggests that the
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size of the enterprises the entrepreneurs engage in will be increasing due to the
experienced nature of the women.
Table 4: Frequency distribution of the women according to business
experience
Business Experience (Years)
Frequency
Percentage
Less than 10
41
68.33
10-20
12
20.00
Greater than 20
7
11.67
Total
60
100.00
Mean Farming Experience = 9.67 years
Source: Field Survey, 2012
Membership to Cooperatives
Membership in organization in the study areas is reported in Figure 2.
Membership was measured by asking the women to tick whether they are
members of any business association/cooperative society or not. Majority
(55.00%) of the women are members of the cooperatives/business associations.
Membership of these cooperatives/associations is mandatory for those women
who had reasonable access to it. The cooperatives are used to providing
entrepreneurs with inputs, machinery services and credit. Members of an
organization are in a privileged position with respect to access information on
agricultural innovations. Membership of cooperatives is known to confer on
entrepreneurs several benefits especially in relating with governmental
agencies, financial institutions and non-governmental organizations. One of the
best ways of reducing the recycling constant of subsistence in rural
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entrepreneurship is through economic empowerment of the rural women, which
can take place through their participation in cooperative activities.
Figure 2: Bar Chart of the percentage distribution of membership of
women entrepreneurs to cooperatives
Source: Field Survey, 2012
Women Entrepreneurs’ Access to Credit
Access to credit was differently specified by the respondents. Table 5 shows
that majority of the women entrepreneurs (60.00%) had no access to credit
while the remaining 40.00% had access to credit. The assertions made indicate
that most respondents in the target population have no access to credit. This
could be attributed to the informal nature of the economy of the area. This could
mean that the entrepreneurs who had access to credit relied on informal sources
of credit for their start-up capital, especially from their business association they
belong to.
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Table 5: Frequency distribution of women entrepreneurs by access to
credit
Access to Credit
Frequency
Percentage
No Access
36
60.00
Access
24
40.00
Total
60
100.00
Source: Field Survey, 2012
Entrepreneurial Activities practised by the Women
Women’s Participation in Entrepreneurial Activities
Women’s participation in entrepreneurial activities was determined and
presented in Table 6. The table revealed that majority (70.00%) of the women
participated in one entrepreneurial activity or another while the remaining
30.00% did not participate. The women engaged in entrepreneurial activities as
a means of assisting their husbands in taking care of the daily needs of the
family. The reason why the other few did not participate in entrepreneurial
activities could be as a result of social conventions, values, and mores which
combine to maintain the stereotype of women as kitchen dwellers who are only
gatecrashers into spheres outside of their matrimonial homes.
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Table 6: Frequency distribution of women according to their participation
in entrepreneurial activities
Participation
Frequency
Percentage
Yes
42
70.00
No
18
30.00
Total
60
100.00
Source: Field Survey, 2012
4.2.2 Entrepreneurial Activities practised by the Women
Figure 3 shows the various entrepreneurial activities practised by the women in
the study area. The common ones were garri processing (45.00%) and palm oil
processing (36.67%). These are identified products whose raw materials were
mostly produced in the study area. These were essential output of the
agricultural sector, which are available in the locality signifying that
entrepreneurial development and provide ready markets and incentive for
continuous value addition of these agricultural products. This revelation is in
agreement with Sani and Sani (2005) which reported that it is imperative, that
steady supply of produce through a well developed market infrastructure,
effective marketing information, provision of inputs, and adopting of better
business strategies would make the women to maximize income and the
consumers of such product to pay little.
Garri Processing: Cassava is a raw material/primary product direct from the
farm. It is processed into garri by the women. Forty five percent of the women
were involved in this business which makes it the dominant business by women
in the area.
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Palm Oil Processing: This involves the processing of oil palm fruit through
hydraulic press method or use of other devices to produce palm oil and other
derivatives. About 36.67% of the women were involved in this enterprise.
Baking: This involves the production of confectioneries such as Bread, Cakes,
Chin Chin etc. using flour, butter and etc. Baking process involves cooking by
drying and continuous heating, mostly by the use of oven. About 6.67% of the
women in Okigwe agricultural zone were involved in baking (Figure 3).
Moi Moi Production: This involves the use of Beans and other condiments
which is processed and cooked to produce food called Moi Moi. About 6.67%
of the women were involved in this activity (Figure 3).
Plantain Chips: This involves the slicing of unripe plantain into small pieces
called chips and fried to produce a kind of food. Ten percent of the women were
involved in this activity (Figure 3).
Bean Cake: (Baking and Frying of Beans): This typically involves beans
cooked or fried in tomato sauce and canned/ tinned. Fifteen percent of the
women were involved in this activity (Figure 3).
Poultry production: This involves the raising of poultry birds from day old to
market for meat and raising of layers for egg. Five percent of the women were
involved in this enterprise (Figure 3). The low involvement of women in this
activity could be due to the fact that the enterprise requires higher technical
capacity of the entrepreneur which may be lacking in the area.
Tailoring: This involves sewing of feminine clothes and weaving. About
16.67% of the women were involved in this activity (Figure 3).
Petty trading: This involves the trade of all sort food items. About 13.33% of
the women engaged in this activity.
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Palm Kernel Cracking: This involves the separation of the palm nut from the
shell. Both products of cracking are economically useful. About 3.33% of the
women engaged in this activity (Figure 3).
Oil Bean Processing: This involves the picking of Oil Bean seed, boiling,
slicing and keeping for fermentation. After fermentation, it is packaged and sold
in the market. About 5.00% of the women engaged in this activity (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Bar chart representing the percentage distribution of the
entrepreneurial activities practised by the women
Source: Field survey, 2012
Constraints to Women’s Participation in Entrepreneurship Development
The constraints to women’s participation in entrepreneurship development are
presented in Table 7.
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1. Inadequate capital: About 73.33% of the women indicated that inadequate
capital is the major barrier to full participation in entrepreneurship development.
They reported that available capital was not enough for the start-up, expansion
and the day-to-day running of their business. This agrees with the findings of
Owualah (1999) who reported that the initial capital investment of most smallscale enterprises usually comes from personal savings of the owners derived
from wages. This is because credit facilities from the banks were grossly
inadequate with stringent terms.
2. Scarcity of labour: Scarcity of labour is another barrier to full participation
in entrepreneurial activities as 55.00% of the women confirmed. This could be
mainly attributed to the growing rural to urban migration in the area causing
many able bodied hands in households to migrate to the cities in search of better
economic activities.
3. Poor management techniques: About 35.00% of the women were of the
opinion that poor management technique was a major constraint to their full
participation in entrepreneurial development in the study area. Omeresan (2004)
reported that the good management in the small business sector is scarce and as
a result, only few of the small firms survive in a volatile environment. This has
been responsible for the failure of many family-operated small businesses.
4. Poor infrastructural facilities: About 35.00% of the women indicated that
poor infrastructural facilities are one of the problems militating against their full
participation in entrepreneurial development in the area. Infrastructure refers to
both physical and non-physical. Physical infrastructure consists of roads,
modern energy and non-physical item such as market structure. According to
Nonyelu (2004), the unsteady power supply and poor state of Nigeria road
network tend to hamper business activities. The extra cost borne by business
operators in providing stand-by-electric generators raises the total cost of
production and decreases net returns. Furthermore, sound infrastructure will
provide rural entrepreneurs to have access to urban markets.
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5. Poor financial management practices: The result shows that 30.00% of the
women had inaccurate physical and accounting records. Some virtually lacked
the relevant records. Most small business firms were also fond of too many
credit transactions, extending credit sales too liberally to their customers
without making effort to recover them. This has led to the collapse of many
small-scale businesses in the rural area.
6. Impassable roads: About 23.33% of the women reported impassable roads
as the constraint to women’s participation in entrepreneurial development in the
area. There is no doubt that Okigwe agricultural zone have dilapidated roads,
both the rural and urban areas. This affects the development of entrepreneurship
development. Road improvements make it easier to purchase inputs from and
sell products to urban markets and overseas.
7. Poor market outlet: Poor market access reported by 13.33% of the women is
another problem to entrepreneurship development in the area. This could be due
to poor infrastructural facilities in many communities of the area like bad roads
leading to many markets in the area. This increases the transaction cost of the
line of activities the respondents engaged in.
8. Scarcity and High Cost of Raw Materials: About 6.67% of the women
reported scarcity and high cost of raw materials as one of the problems
challenging their full participation in entrepreneurial development in the area.
This is typical of small-scale business organization in Africa. This corroborated
with the findings of Omeresen (2004) who asserted that one of the reasons for
the low rate of survival of small-scale business is the scarcity and high cost of
raw materials.
Table 7: Distribution of constraints to women’s participation in
entrepreneurship development
Constraint
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Frequency
Percentage
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Inadequate Capital
ISBN : 9780974211428
44
73.33
4
6.67
Scarcity of Labour
33
55.00
Poor Infrastructural Facilities
21
35.00
Poor Financial Management
18
30.00
Lack of Management Techniques
21
35.00
Scarcity of Raw Materials
Impassable road
14
23.33
Poor market outlet
8
18.33
Note: Multiple responses
Source: Field Survey, 2012
CONCLUION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The socio-economic characteristics of the women showed that they are mainly
young, married, had average household size, experienced and literate. They also
belonged to cooperative societies with many lacking access to business credit.
Thirteen different types of enterprises were identified and the most prevalent
were garri processing and palm oil processing, and they topped the list. These
are identified products whose raw materials were mostly produced in the study
area. These were essential output of the agricultural sector, which are available
in the locality signifying that entrepreneurial development and provide ready
markets and incentive for continuous value addition of these agricultural
products. This indicates that the area is a typical agrarian economy.
Many problems are associated with women full engagement in entrepreneurship
development. The common one is inadequate capital. Others include poor
infrastructural facilities, poor financial management, impassable roads, poor
market outlet, scarcity of labour, scarcity and high cost of raw materials and
poor management techniques.
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The opportunity to promote the formation of small businesses amongst women
needs to be recognized by governments and international organizations, which
have targeted schemes to assist investment in business activities. To help rural
women’s participation in micro and small medium enterprises through the
injection of highly committed women entrepreneurship, it is necessary to design
a women-management system which deliberately attracts youthful, educated,
heads of average households with access to credit and are members of
cooperatives.
Inadequate capital was identified a constraints facing women engagement in
businesses in Nigeria. Since these women contribute to the nation’s Gross
Domestic Product, they need to be encouraged through enhanced access to
business credit. They should also be encouraged to bunch themselves into
cooperatives and other societies which can access grants and concessionary
lending terms. The presence of development institutions in rural areas that
would promote access to credit facilities and ultimately increase income should
be considered. Also, microfinance institution and other lending institutions
should assist in provision of loans to rural inhabitants to increase their
diversification into many income activities as a way to enhance their
livelihoods. One other way to address the credit constraints is through formation
of cooperatives. Cooperatives provide loans to members. Another advantage of
formation of cooperatives lies in its ability to reduce the cost of disseminating
technical and marketing information, distributing inputs, and marketing output.
Government should promote policies that will facilitate the rapid development
of the raw materials for the cost effective operations of these small businesses
practised by rural women. There is the dire need for the provision of good
infrastructural facilities such as electricity, water supply, communication
facilities and even security of lives and property. This will stimulate investors’
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interest and the survival of the existing small-scale businesses such as the food
processing enterprises, tailoring, petty trading, and poultry production.
Policy makers and the various governments should support small scale
enterprises through formulation of policies and enacting laws which will
outrightly promote and sustain the growth and survival of the small businesses
engaged in by women in Nigeria.
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