Many different parties will be expectant that their Presidential candidate wins and that their hopes are materialized. One of these will be women entrepreneurs in Kenya. They play a role in growing the Kenyan economy and, therefore, will expect the Government to help them more in carrying out the function.
From an assortment of research findings, here are the 7 most pressing things women entrepreneurs in Kenya expect the elected Government to deliver:
1.Financial support
The Kenyan Government already has a number of funds for entrepreneurs in the country. Commendable but, obviously, this is not enough. It is necessary that a way is found to incentivize lending from the private sector. Women entrepreneurs in Kenya want the elected Government to dedicate itself to engaging financial institutions to do so. This should result in new services, new forms of collateral, cheaper credit and preference for long-term partnerships.
2.Non-financial support
Money is not the only important concern for women entrepreneurs in Kenya. The Government should step up efforts to provide platforms for imparting technical and management expertise to business women. Again, this is possible through either of public initiative and private incentive. In the case where business support services are in existence, the issue of accessibility should not be ignored. Lack of capacity in their particular line of business is a key reason for failure among women entrepreneurs.
3.Training programs
This is related to point 2. It is encouraging, for women in Kenya, that projects like Kiriri Women’s University for Science and Technology exist. Even before getting into entrepreneurship, women need to be trained on identifying and exploiting opportunities. This can help stem rural-urban migration, poverty among women and reduce instances of business failure. The training programs should nurture an entrepreneurial mentality and technical competence.
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4.Ease of doing business
The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report had Kenya at a lowly 92. In contrast, Rwanda was ranked 52nd. One of the reasons for this concerns the statutory requirements of starting a business. In Rwanda, registration is unified, brief and cheap. Kenya still has a problem with the many permits and licenses required to start a business. It can be off-putting. You need to register a company name (at great cost), get your county government trade permit, health permit, certificate of good conduct (on occasions) and what not. Nairobi’s lead of unifying registration should be a minimum.
5.Infrastructure
We are all excited to have the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and its eventful way of acquiring a ticket. But that’s not what women entrepreneurs in Kenya want. They want convenience in buying a ticket to Mombasa and infrastructure in place to make their businesses much more efficient. Let there be well-maintained permanent structures for selling wares. Let there be cheap electricity, roads and warehousing to cut product costs. Moreover all this will help get rid of the worst kind of people on earth; the middlemen.
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6.Emphasis on agriculture and manufacturing
It’s embarrassing that anyone should question the commitment of our Government on these two sectors. These are the building blocks of a majority of developed countries. In Kenya, agriculture is the largest employer but because of low productivity its share of GDP is not commensurate. Women make up 80% of farmers in Kenya, according to the World Bank. They want more subsidies from the Government to succeed. Everyone in agribusiness does. Otherwise it is impossible to make money out of products the Government wants to be dirt cheap.
Women in manufacturing want a response to stagnation of the sector in Kenya. Import substitution has given us a wide variety of Made-in-Kenya products but there is still ground to be made with the size of our informal sector and overall population. Women entrepreneurs in Kenya also want Government to get real on policies that will transition us to exporting. We have already begun losing East Africa to India and China ffs.
7.Deliver a growing economy
These women mean double-digits level of growth. They have has enough of this 5% and 6% trolling. A growing economy means more spending power, more investment and greater risk tolerance. All this is great for business.