What does microfinance contribute to female entrepreneurship in Uganda?

Transcription

1 What does microfinance contribute to female entrepreneurship in Uganda? Paper presented at 8 th Annual Entrepreneurship Conference of Makerere University Business School, Kampala By Meier zu Selhausen, F. / Muzigiti G. / Schmidt, O. Department of Banking and Microfinance,, Fort Portal Slide 1/12

2 Presentation Outline 1. Entrepreneurship and microfinance 2. SACCO-membership and entrepreneurship 3. Quality entrepreneurship?! 4. Concluding remarks Slide 2/12

3 F i n a n c i a l m a n a g e m e n t 1 Entrepreneurship and microfinance Functions of the entrepreneur Beaudeau (1797) Kilby (2003) Planning business Organising resources Leading staff Owning factors of production Taking Risk Design & execution of competitive marketing strategies Technical & organisational innovation Organising the firm Industrial engineering Management in terms of coordination & control of the production process Staff recruitment Human relations within the firm and with customers, suppliers and the regulatory public bureaucracy Gaining command over scarce resources Acquiring & assembling the physical production facilities Willingness to bear all non-insurable risks Slide 3/12

4 1 Entrepreneurship and microfinance I believe that the real eradication of poverty begins when people are able to control their own fate. [...] Opening up opportunities for selfemployment by creating appropriate institutions and policies is unquestionably the best strategy for eliminating unemployment and poverty. (Yunus/Jolis 1998) Ilusion 2: Microfinance focuses on micro-entrepreneurs [...] The proportion of any country s population who are entrepreneurs seems to fall between 10 and 20 percent. Where the proportion is higher, it is an expression of lack of choice: [...] people try their luck as micro-entrepreneurs, mostly traders or suppliers of simple services (cleaing, brooming, transporting stuff). (Schmidt 2010) Slide 4/12

5 2 SACCO-membership and entrepreneurship In Uganda, only about 1 in 3 SACCO-members is female. Accordingly, women are underrepresented at leadership and staff levels. In this paper, we study a gender-representative sample of over 600 respondents (members and non-members) from the area of operation of 4 SACCOs: Iceme Rural Farmers (Midnorth), Masaka Microfinance Development Trust MAMIDECOT (Central), Muhame Financial Services, Sheema district (Western) and Mpanga Tea Growers in Kabarole (South-Western). Slide 5/12

6 2 SACCO-membership and entrepreneurship (i) In-charge of either business or agriculture In-charge of business In-charge of agriculture (ii) Diversified sources of income Men Women Slide 6/12

7 2 SACCO-membership and entrepreneurship Women in-charge of business Women in-charge of agriculture 100,0% 100,0% 75,0% 75,0% 50,0% 50,0% 25,0% 25,0% 0,0% Members Non-members 0,0% Members Non-members Muhame FS MAMIDECOT Iceme Rural Farmers Muhame FS MAMIDECOT Iceme Rural Farmers Slide 7/12

8 2 SACCO-membership and entrepreneurship Women in-charge of business Women in-charge of agriculture 100,0% 100,0% 75,0% 75,0% 50,0% 50,0% 25,0% 25,0% 0,0% Members Non-members 0,0% Members Non-members Muhame FS MAMIDECOT Muhame FS MAMIDECOT Slide 8/12

9 2 SACCO-membership and entrepreneurship 100,0% Women with diversified sources of income 75,0% 50,0% 25,0% 0,0% Members Non-members Muhame FS MAMIDECOT Iceme Rural Farmers Slide 9/12

10 3 Quality entrepreneurship?! At Mpanga Tea Growers SACCO out of all outgrower members only 9% are female (77/829) Unequal control/ownership over property rights 1. Assets Collateral Access to loans Entrepreneurship Land titles Household Decisions Investment Entrepreneurship Slide 10/12

11 4 Concluding remarks Ugandan SACCOs contribute positively to quality entrepreneurship of women. However, women are significantly underrepresented among SACCOleadership, staff and members. Moreover, entrepreneurship of female SACCO-members is shaped by business model and urbanisation of the area of operation. Therefore, SACCOs (and probably other MFIs as well) do not trigger ( impact on ) entrepreneurship, but rather coincidently help those who have it in themselves. In general, entrepreneurship research and policies should become more precise; not entrepreneurship by necessity (Appel/Karlan 2011), but quality entrepreneurship would be relevant for development, and not least for the creation of employment. Slide 11/12

12 Mountains of the Moon University Non-profit Community University since 2005 in Fort Portal Enrolment (2011): approx. 1,200 students School of Business and Management Studies Department of Banking and Microfinance Bachelor Banking and Development Finance (3 years) Diploma Rural Microfinance (2 year) Certificate Rural Microfinance (1 year) Research into: Microfinance loan and savings products Agriculture-payment-systems Business sustainability of SACCOs Slide 12/12

13 Thank you very much for listening We are looking forward to questions and discussion Dr. Oliver Schmidt Academic Advisor Microfinance Muzigiti Geoffrey Head of Department for Banking and Microfinance Felix Meier zu Selhausen Academic Junior Advisor, Research and Microfinance Slide 13/12