Does participation in cooperatives empower women entrepreneurs economically? A case study of savings and credit cooperative societies in Mvomero District, Tanzania
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Date
2015
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Cooperatives have been identified as powerful vehicles of economic, social and political
empowerment for women; especially those taking part in entrepreneurial activities,
although it seems majority still live in absolute poverty. This study set out to investigate
whether participation in cooperatives especially, Saving and Credit Cooperative Societies
empower women entrepreneurs. The study has used Mvomero District as a case study.
Specifically, the study focused on examining the level of participation in cooperatives
among women entrepreneurs, to measure the altitude of women toward empowerment
through activities and services provided by SACCOS, assessing the services provided by
SACCOS and comparing economic empowerment in terms of the income level and assets
owned by women entrepreneurs before and after being members of the SACCOS.A cross-
sectional design to obtain data was used, where a total of eighty women entrepreneurs
were interviewed, guided by focus group discussions with SACCOS women members for
over two years and a checklist for stakeholders including SACCOS leaders and
Cooperative officer of Mvomero District. Data were analyzed using descriptive and
inferential statistics by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The main study
findings show that there is low level of women participation in leadership as they only
provide ideas when invited to do so which does not guarantee that those ideas will be
taken aboard. Women agreed that SACCOS has positively changed their lives as now they
have power of owning, use, purchase assets and income but skeptical about ability to talk
in the public and transfer of assets. Services provided by SACCOS have brought positive
changes in their entrepreneurial activities. Substantiate by the fact that the SACCOS in
Mvomero did not provide adequate services (both material and non-material) to assist the
unemployed women entrepreneurs. Generally, participation in SACCOS provided
economic gain among women entrepreneurs as there was a rise in income, however onlyiii
limited training in skills and knowledge like entrepreneurship skills, business management
and leadership skills were provided. The study recommended that more knowledge should
be provided to women who are entrepreneurs and unemployed. The knowledge provided
will improve their way of doing business and hence will run business in a way that more
profit will be generated.
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Keywords
participation in cooperatives, women entrepreneurs, Mvomero District, SACCOS