Abstract:
This study was pursued to assess the impact of local government credit facilities on
performance of women-owned small enterprises in Meru District, Tanzania. This study was
guided by three specific objectives which are (a) to determine the accessibility of local
governments’ credit facilities by the women-owned small enterprises of Meru District council;
(b) to examine the use of local governments’ credit facilities by the women-owned small
enterprises of Meru District council and (c) to determine the relationship between local
government credit facilities and the performance of women-owned small enterprises. A cross sectional design together with qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed in this
study. A population of local government credit beneficiary women group owning small
businesses in Meru District was the target population of this study. Out of 134 registered and
local government credited women groups in Meru District, 100 women groups were used as
sample of this study. Questionnaires and interview formed the methods of data collection for
this study. Both quantitative and qualitative procedures were employed to analyze data.
Quantitative data that were collected by questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Package
for Social Science (SPSS) software by means of descriptive statistics including frequencies and
percentages while the information obtained through interviews were carefully organized in a
manner which matched with the key research themes under each of the specific objectives. The
study concluded that, access to the local government credit facilities plays a significant role in
promoting the performance of women-owned small businesses in terms of sales, profit and
business net worth. Given the importance of size of credit on business performance, this study
recommends to the local government authorities to maintain the policy of granting the same
amount of credit applied by the women entrepreneurs and if possible to increase the size of
credit they give to these women entrepreneurs
