Opportunities and challenges Facing Women Entrepreneurs in North-East Nigeria

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The concept of entrepreneurs had been described quite differently by scholars. According to Mordi, Simpson and Singh (2010), an entrepreneur is one who undertakes a commercial venture and who is an organizational inventor or creator of a commercial venture. Winn sees an entrepreneur as one who exploits opportunities and one who has the tenacity to face challenges (Win, 2005). The role of women in the society doesn't end with being mothers, sisters, housewives and sometimes being breadwinners (Obbe, 1980). They play other vital roles whose relevance can hardly ever be over emphasized in contributing to the process of economic growth and development. This is why for the past couple of decades there is an increase in the number of academic literatures raising interest on women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs in my opinion are simply entrepreneurs who are not men but females who venture in one form of business or the other for commercial purposes. According to Okafor, women entrepreneurs are females who participate in entrepreneurial activities (Okafor, 2010). In differentiating women entrepreneurs from their male counterpart, Supprakit (2011) noted that entrepreneurs irrespective of gender face economic, political or even business environmental issues. Women entrepreneurs have to deal with other special issues such as sexism and inequality (Supprakit, 2011). Women, especially in developing economies such as Nigeria also face the lack of capital with which to set up even very small enterprises, and due to lack of collateral security, most banks deny them loans which could serve as good source of start-up capital. These special issues and other related ones have immense potentials in inhibiting prospects of women entrepreneurs.

Women's tale in Nigeria is a familiar one. With many agitating to establish individual ventures in other to support large families and to avert poverty traps which they've been engulfed in for generations, women have continued to sort for ways of cushioning some of these challenges. This quest dates as far back as the pre-colonial era but yet, even to the present age, women are still being confronted by these challenges that were existent since pre-colonial age. Another problem is the issue of unemployment rate which is characterized by informal discrimination and gender based occupational segregation. However, in spite of all this, Nigerian women who are getting engaged in entrepreneurial activities are growing as they seek career and more independence growth (Neergaard & Ulhoi, 2007, pp. 56-69). Therefore, the purpose of this research is to find out the key characteristics of successful women entrepreneurs along with the key factors posing challenges to the performance of women entrepreneurs. In other words, the researcher purposed to identify successful characteristics of female entrepreneurs and those specific barriers constraining the women folks with entrepreneurial spirit in North-Eastern Nigeria.

Background

Economic development of any region refers to a process through which per capita income of the region increases over a period of time. Entrepreneurship is part of the process of economic development, playing a significant part in helping viable economies development just ...