Effect of table banking on economic empowerment of Women in small medium enterprises. a case study of Kirinyaga County Kenya

Abstract

Women empowerment has become a subject of concern across the globe for the last few decades and the World Bank recommends that women empowerment should be a key area of social development programs. The theoretical framework for this study is based upon one model and two theories which will give an in-depth analysis of the problem. These are Lewin’s model, group cohesion theory and empowerment theory. The main objective of this study is the effect of table banking on economic empowerment of women in SME’s in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The specific objectives of this study are: To examine effect of savings mobilization on economic empowerment of women, to explore the effect of professional support on the growth of women in small medium enterprises, to examine the effect of group cohesiveness on economic empowerment of women, to establish how contribution of networking in table banking has contributed to economic empowerment of women. Data was collected by use of questionnaires; sample size of 308 respondents was selected from a population of 1345 registered members practicing table banking within the county. The study adopted explanatory design and the target population was 1345. Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings from the study revealed that saving mobilization had (β 1 = .090, ρ=.028<.05), professional training and support (β 2 = .024, ρ=.009<.05), group cohesion (β3 = .36, ρ=.031<.05), and contribution to network (β4 = .026, ρ=.0006<.05) had a positive and significant effect on economic empowerment of women in Kirinyaga County. The study revealed that Savings mobilization enabled women to save and access loans easily from table banking, Education, management training, management skills were found to be a key factor for women to be conversant with in order to excel in their businesses. Through group cohesiveness women were able to work together and sort out conflicts among themselves without difficulties. The findings also revealed that developing networks, new business contacts and relationships by women who own SMEs had a big impact on the performance of their enterprises. The study concluded that table banking was critical in the economic empowerment of women. The study recommends that the concept of table banking should be embraced by the government and policies should be formulated and implemented, as this will make it easy for women to be economically empowered.