Challenges of Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines entrepreneurship in the light of the process, advantages and disadvantages, women involvement, and challenges, including micro-financing for sourcing capital, high cost of funds, weak Naira, political instability, unstable power supply, competition, advanced fee fraud, socially responsible marketing, balancing of the ecological systems, ethical and socio-cultural issues. The study also discusses the extent to which some development programmes will result in women’s economic, social and political empowerment, since women are generally considered to be at the lowest rung of the poverty ladder in Nigeria. Finally, the study looks at the benefits derivable from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) and the Microfinance Policy established under the auspices of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The paper recommends that the government should address rural poverty by
empowering women with access to material, human, and social resources necessary to make strategic choices in life, thereby becoming change agents to take advantage of abounding entrepreneurial opportunities.