Contribution of women entrepreneurs on socio-economic development of Rwanda through Urwego opportunity bank (2011-2015).

Abstract

Women entrepreneurs in Rwanda have been making a significant impact in all segments of the economy. Women entrepreneurs in Rwanda contributes to the development of Rwanda in various ways, the study's purpose were to assess sources of finance to women entrepreneurs, to assess the contribution of women entrepreneurs to economic development of Rwanda through taxes, job creation, export and improving their economic conditions and to identify challenges faced by women entrepreneurs when and how they are addressed. The primary data was collected on 60 women entrepreneurs and 5 staff from credit department of Urwego Opportunity Bank, and secondary data was collected from library search, internet and documents from the bank. Descriptive method was used to present and to analyze the data collected. The result from the research analysis has shown that women entrepreneurs contribute a lot to the development of Rwanda in addition to developing their socioeconomic status. The analysis also revealed that they contribute to the economic development by way of taxes, creation of employment and supply of goods and services to the population. The study also revealed that women entrepreneurs faced the problem of lack of market, lack of training in improving their skills, etc. To overcome the problems faced by women entrepreneurs, some recommendations were suggested to the government of Rwanda for the development of women entrepreneurship were to increase women entrepreneurs' trainings, reduce taxes, enable raw materials for women entrepreneurs and expand the market for women entrepreneurs.