ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMME ON PERFORMANCE OF RURAL WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA
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Date
2022-01-26
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Ahmadu Bello University Zaria
Abstract
This study assessed the impact of economic empowerment programme (2008 – 2015) on
performance of rural women entrepreneurs in Jigawa State, Nigeria. Primary data was
collected from 405 respondents through the use of random sampling technique with the aid
of a semi-structured questionnaire. The statistical tools used to analyze the data
include;descriptive statistics;difference-in-difference analysis; cross-tabulation analysis;
correlation analysis, Likert scale and regression analysis. Result from the study shows that
(81%) of the women beneficiaries were married, with a mean age of35 years, majority of
the women beneficiaries had formal education. The study shows that close to (90%) of the
sampled entrepreneurs reported strongly that skills acquisition component of the economic
empowerment impacted positively on their enterprise performance, similarly about (89%)
of them strongly agreed that capacity building had positive influence on their
entrepreneurial venture performance, nearly (82%) of the sampled entrepreneurs strongly
agree that a positive relationship exist between equipment provision and entrepreneurial
performance. The difference-in-difference analysis revealed that the government economic
empowerment programme impacted positivelyon the performance of the beneficiaries with
(84.8%) increase in profit, (31.4%) increase in income level and (41.3%) increase in
savings after the intervention. The multiple regression analysis revealed that, the
coefficients of determination; age (0.302), level of education (0.271), improvement upon
completion of training (0.288), additional equipment purchased (0.526), capacity building
training (0.408) and marital status (– 0.143)were the major determinants of rural women
entrepreneurial performance. The value of the F-Statistics is 149.637 indicating a positive
influence of economic empowerment on entrepreneurial performance of rural women
entrepreneurs in Jigawa State. Fifty-nine percent of the beneficiaries have fully utilized the
additional funds they received to purchase additional materials needed for their business