The Impact of Micro Finance Factors on Women Entrepreneurs’ Performance in Northern Sri Lanka

Abstract

Entrepreneurship development is an important tool to develop the individual and society as well as the country. Women play a vital role in the family and society as well. There is no evidence to the development of the country without considering women enhancement. Therefore, women are considering an important to develop the country.However they face challenges and difficulties in their day to day lives and social phenomenon. The government takes necessary action to improve their living condition and generating income opportunity in the developing countries and Sri Lanka as well. In the post war context Sri Lankan economy faces so many challenges specifically in women lives because women lost their male relatives and loves ones due to the war situation. Micro finance is considered as an important tool to enhance the women’s living condition and generate income opportunity. However, it is found out that women entrepreneurs do not have easy access to micro finance factors for their entrepreneurial activity and as such have low business performance due to lack of infrastructure facilities. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of credit, savings and training on women entrepreneurs’ performance in Northern Sri Lanka. Performance of the entrepreneurship is measured with the help of the variables of survival, growth and income /profit. The study involves a survey using structured questionnaire and in depth interviews to solicit responses from women entrepreneurs. Data analysis involves the use of SPSS software package to find out the impact of microfinance factors on business performance. The study concluded that there is an impact of credit and training on income / profit other than survival and growth. It was suggested that the monitoring and skill training facilities are essential to the survival and growth of the business.