THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURESFOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SOKOTO METROPOLIS

BY

A. A. KWAIDO (Mrs)Economics Unit, Department of General Studies,

College of Basic and Preliminary Studies, Sokoto State Polytechnic

February, 2010

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Abstract

An important issue of interest to the global

economy in the 21st century depends on the

participation of both sexes in the growth and

development processes. All over the world, the

significance of women entry into economic venture

over the past three decades has produced profound

transformations in the organization of families,

society, the economy and urban life. Unfortunately

the participation of women in economic ventures in

Sokoto metropolis has been considered as a way to

meeting domestic needs rather than profitable

source of income that can lead to expansion in

business and in the long-run will go along way

towards enhancing economic development. The

objective of this study, therefore, is to determine

ways to overcome some of the problems facing women

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entrepreneurs in Sokoto metropolis. Unless that is

achieved, the chances of indigenous women

entrepreneurs succeeding in running an enterprise

will remain an unfilled dream.

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IntroductionWomen specifically participate in business

ventures from a desire for self determination and for

career challenge and that they expect the

corresponding respect, recognition and self esteem,

which both self determination and challenge can

provide. Unfortunately, along way these desires

remain unattainable to many women entrepreneurs,

because they face difficult challenges stemming not

only from their biological make-up but also the

quantity and quality of the nation’s resources

available to them. Like any other entrepreneur, women

require education and training, financial assistance

and advice to be able to manage the businesses

properly and profitably. Other impediments for women

are societal, cultural and religious attitudes.

For the purpose of convenience and proper

organization, the paper is structured to consist of

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introduction, review the concept of entrepreneurial

venture and examine women entrepreneurial ventures in

contemporary Nigeria. It will also examine problems of

women entrepreneurs in Sokoto metropolis and their

contributions, government effort and the paper ends

with recommendations.

Entrepreneurial Venture as a ConceptThe concept of entrepreneurship has been around

for a very long time, but its resurgent popularity

implies a sudden discovery as our future rests

squarely on entrepreneurial ventures, which involves

more than just problem solving in a management

position but also involve identification and

evaluation of the opportunity, development of the

business plan, determination of the required resources

and management of the resulting enterprise.

Entrepreneurial ventures are founded by creative

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individuals, energetic adventurers, risk takers who

can at once disrupt a society and instigate progress

(Hisrich, Peters & Shepherd, 2008).

Entrepreneurial venture involve a kind of

behaviour that includes initiative thinking,

organizing and reorganizing of social and economic

mechanisms to turn resources and situations to

practical account, individual with vision for growth,

the acceptance of risk or failure (Holt, 2005).

Women Entrepreneurial Venture in Contemporary NigeriaAll over the world, the significance of women

entry into economic ventures has been steadily

increasing. Women have always actively participated in

their local economies. In Africa, for example, women

produce 80 percent of the food and in Asia 60 percent

and in Latin America 40 percent (Onwumere, 2000). In

many cases, women not only produce the food but market

it as well, which gives them a well-developed

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knowledge of local markets and customers. In Africa,

all the tasks related to family support are the

responsibilities of women. Due to cultural and

traditional aspect, a woman’s presence has been a

question of survival of her family (Anyanwu, 2001).

Women, especially poor mothers, must divide their

time between “productive role” and family

“reproductive role” and balancing all the demands.

Time is valuable for these women as their livelihoods

depend largely on their ability to fulfill the

multiple demands of the household and the market

place. In spite of the remarkable importance of

women’s participation, their jobs have been considered

as an “extra income” to family survival or simply to

improve living conditions, instead of a profitable

source of income. This explains why women enterprises

tend to be associated with activities that provide

part-time employment. They are small in size and have4

loose, informal structures, require very little start-

up capital, and little or no formal education

(Obitayo, 1991). Business women in developing

countries like Nigeria share the following

characteristics:

i. They are concentrated in market sectors that have

low barriers to entry and low level of outside

communication (transfer to other markets).

ii. They focus on trade, services, and light

manufacturing activities.

iii. Their businesses are smaller than others,

employing less than five employees.

iv. The owners have relatively little previous

working experience.

v. They use traditional technologies.

vi. Most employees are family related which increases

social pressure to share benefit.

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vii. They are often home based.

viii. Business growth strategies are affected by

household responsibilities.

ix. Owners tend to have lower level of education and

literacy.

x. In adequate bookkeeping.

Despite government programmes aimed at reaching

small-scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria, women, as a

group, are not considered for assistance (US National

Commission on Working Women, 1998). The major reason

for this is that most of the enterprises women engage

in, such as petty dressmaking, hair dressing, food

processing and small scale manufacturing, fall outside

census production surveys, (Economic Commission for

Africa, 1991). The representation of women in the

informal sector is in fact higher than that of men,

unfortunately, the participation of women is

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underestimated. This is because women’s ventures,

which are often excluded from national census of

production surveys, are unaccounted for in the

calculation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

(Soatan, 2004).

Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in Sokoto MetropolisIn Sokoto metropolis, women are faced with

serious constraints in the development of their

business ventures. This is so because the state is a

place where women enterprises are mostly concentrated

in rural areas with few opportunities and little

access to funds and credit facilities. Even where

credit facilities are available, the cost (that is

interest rate) and other bank charges are mostly too

high. Also women entrepreneurs find it difficult to

provide collateral security usually demanded by banks,

access to equity funding are difficult to raise by

most women largely because of lack of trust by equity

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providers because the women entrepreneurs lack the

rudimentary skills necessary for preparation of

bankable proposals due for consideration by lending

institutions and access to the stock market is

virtually non existent (Mensah, 1990).

Lack of information on the availability and

location of raw materials, its profitability,

availability, technology and technical assistance and

sources of finance including venture capital

particularly for small-enterprise are all either not

available or difficult to access in certain situation.

Where they are available, there is inadequate

availability of industrial infrastructure to meet the

need of women entrepreneurs in Sokoto metropolis. For

instance, infrastructural facilities such as water,

electricity, transportation et cetera are not

adequately provided leading most businesses to

spending their limited resources in establishing basic8

utilities and facilities. Obviously, this adds to

their total overhead costs (Nnanna, 2001).

In a study conducted by Shamsudeen (2003) it was

discovered, there is the lack of technical support

mechanism to most ventures owned by women. In fact, it

is surprising that no technical support system geared

towards assisting women entrepreneurs by way of

improving existing technology is in use despite the

fact that most women ventures use indigenous

technology in their production system. To date there

has not been a well articulated technological policy

formed as an integral part of National Industrial

Development Strategy. Against this background, the

growth prospects of women entrepreneurs in Sokoto

metropolis appear very bleak especially under the

present economic environment of liberalization and

deregulation.

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The impact of family commitment in Oluchi, (2001)

was identified as a major problem militating against

women entrepreneurs as they lack the full support and

cooperation of their spouses. It is revealed that most

spouses are unnecessarily jealous of their wives

business endeavour thereby relinquishing their

domestic financial responsibilities to their wives.

The women entrepreneurs lack adequate time for running

of their businesses because of reproductive and

domestic responsibilities.

Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs and their ContributionsIndigenous women entrepreneurs refer to the group

of women who are the real indigenes of Sokoto State.

These groups of women are mostly the local women who

are generally illiterates, poor and majority of them

are married and remain in their matrimonial homes for

the greater part of their time without going out

unless the need arises. Thus, many people believe that

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these women are not participating in any economic

activity. This notion however, contradicts the reality

of the situation. Ironically, this segment of women

perhaps contribute more than those who formally engage

in those economic activities that receive due

recognition and attention by the government (Malami,

2006).

The labour which these women provide is very

large and it helps in the smooth running of our

societies. The level of domestic chores which these

women engage in, if given monetary value may be higher

than any other respected and recognized job. In

addition to domestic responsibilities of these women

they also engage in one form of trade or the other.

(Malami, 1996) Some economic activities undertaken by

this segment of women includes the following:

1. Rearing of animals

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2. Food and catering

3. Local sauce (Daddawa)

4. Manufacturing soaps and creams

5. Manufacturing of mats (Wundaye), covers (Faya-

fai) local fans (Maferfetai), making sieve

(Matankadi) and mixer (Maburkaki)

6. Pot manufacturing

7. Leather works

8. Spinning and weaving

9. Leather works

10. Tailoring

11. Carpentry

12. Hair dressing, to mention but few.

Going by the above mentioned contribution one

will be able to observe that all the above mentioned

are areas if expanded will become big manufacturing

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enterprises that can provide employment and income to

many and which in turn adds value to the state’s

economy as well as the country’s economy, thus leading

to economic development. Unfortunately these segments

of women and their types of trade are not receiving

due recognition by the government as part of the

economic activities that contribute to the economic

growth and development of the nation (Malami, 2006).

Government EffortsThe present civilian administration, which took

over the government on 29th May, 2007 formulated

policies and programs towards improving the well being

of people of Sokoto State at large. particularly the

poor and unemployed through skill acquisition training

program. The state government established women

resource center where women are trained in different

types of skills for income generation activities

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(Social Welfare, Entrepreneurship Education and Skills

Acquisition, 2008).

Training poor widows left with children on simple

business methods and each assisted with N10,000 (ten

thousand naira) to boost their existing income

generation activities or start new ones. Additionally,

there was limited provision of credit support facility

for the procurement of equipment and machines

essential to enhance productive capacity and to

improve or modernize production methods.

Recommendations

1. In the face of all that, it is being suggested

that the existing literacy level in the country

and particularly among women can be improved by

the government through education and training

programmes by educating more women providing them

with basic education and training. These can be

done by arranging scholarship and embarking on14

house to house training programme involving

female teachers who will meet with the targeted

women in their various homes to educate and train

them since most of them live in seclusion

(purdah). The education and training should cover

skill development courses, monitoring trainees

and enterprises, marketing development,

continuous training of entrepreneurs which will

help in assisting the women in becoming

successful.

2. Since women make up a higher proportion of those

involved in small – scale activities, their

contribution should be acknowledged by the

society as a whole and in particular the

government. To acknowledge the contribution of

women is to assist them to solve the numerous

obstacles they are facing.

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3. To increase and support women’s participation in

small scale enterprises. governments should

explore ways of developing innovative credit

programmes using intermediary channels or

institutions closer to the target groups such as

co-operatives, women’s group associations and

other grassroot organisations. Savings and credit

programmes should be designed in a way not to

exclude women from participating.

4. Establishing of support systems including the

provision of relevant infrastructure, working

materials machines, equity market, quality

control, standardization, flexible rules and

regulations, simplified registration and business

procedures et cetera. This will help in

strengthening the capacities of women.

5. Husbands should try as much as possible to give

their wives the encouragement, the moral and16

financial support they need by assisting them

with some responsibilities at home.

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