Credit Accessibility As A Factor For Sustainability Of Women Owned Small And Medium Enterprises In Kenya (A Pointer To Overcoming Poverty Challenges In Kenya And The Region)

In the recent years there has been an influx of women venturing in the field of entrepreneurship in developing countries. This is attributed to advocacy on women empowerment programs and policies. Women owned small micro enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to record poor performances compared to their male counterparts. The purpose of this study was set to investigate credit accessibility as a factor for sustainability of women owned small and medium owned enterprises in Kenya The factors of credit studied included Collaterals, Government funding(women & youth funds)Sources of finance of women entrepreneurs. The study adopted cross-sectional survey design on a sample of 120 women entrepreneurs. The study found that 39.5%,20.7% of the respondents agreed collaterals(as a factor of credit) influenced sustainability of women owned enterprises to a very high extent and great extent respectively, 45.5%,25.7 of the respondents concluded Government funding(women and youth fund)(as a factor of credit) influence sustainability to a very great extent and moderate extent respectively finally 37.5%,20.7 of the respondent agreed sources of finance(as a factor of credit) influenced sustainability of women owned SMEs to a very high extent and great extent respectively. This implied that the selected sub factors Collaterals, Government funding (women & youth funds) Sources of finance of the respondents influenced positively sustainability of women owned small and medium owned enterprises in Kenya. Based on the study findings, credit accessibility was identified as one of the effective factor that influenced the sustainability of women owned SMEs.It was recommended that affordable source of capital on Women owned enterprises are necessary to impact on working capital which is necessary for the running and managing their enterprises. (Keywords: Credit; Small medium enterprises; Women owned enterprises; sustainability)