"the impact of women entrepreneurs on economic development of rwanda" case study of women entrepreneur in expo 2010 organized by rwanda private sector federation.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ADB : Africa Development Bank

ANOVA : Analysis of Variance

FHH : Female Headed Household

GDP : Gross Domestic Product

GE : Global Entrepreneurship

GEM : Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

GNP : Gross National Product

MSMs : Micro-Small and Medium sized Enterprises

NGOs : Non Government Organizations

NISR : National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda

OECD : Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development

RWF : Rwandan Franc

RPSF : Rwanda Private Sector Federation

SAMEN : South Africa Women entrepreneurs' Network

SAWE : South Africa Women Entrepreneurs

SMEs : Small and Medium Enterprises

SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

UNIDO : United National Industrial Development Organization

USA : United States of America

WB : World Bank

WBSR : World Bank Study Report

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Demographic characteristics of the respondents 18

Table4.2: Cross tabulation between sector of activities and the three variables in table 4.1 19

Table 4.3: Number of employees by sector 23

Table 4.4: Family size of women entrepreneurs 29

Table4.5: Model Summary 29

Table 4.6: ANOVA Table 29

Table 4.7: Coefficients 30

Table 4.8: comparison of monthly mean savings 31

Table4.9: Test about mean monthly savings 31

Table 4.10: comparison of mean monthly expenditures 33

Table 4.11: Test about mean monthly expenditure 33

Table 4.12: Mean working capital at the start and after 34

Table 4.13: Test about mean working capital 34

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure4.1: Reasons why women become entrepreneurs 21

Figure4.2: Source of finance 22

Figure 4.3: Market for women entrepreneurs 24

Figure 4.4: activities women contribute more in the development of the society 26

Figure 4.5: Changes in live standards after becoming entrepreneurs 28

Figure 4.6 Mean monthly savings before and after becoming entrepreneurs 32

Figure 4.7: Challenges faced by women entrepreneurs 35

LIST OF APPENDICES

Questionnaire on women entrepreneurs in expo 2010 at Rwanda Private Sector Federation GIKONDO from 26^th/August to 8^th/September 2010

ABSTRACT

Women entrepreneurs in Rwanda have been making a significant impact in all segment of the economy. Women entrepreneurs in Rwanda contributes to the development of Rwanda in various ways, the study's purpose were to extend the existing few statistical baseline on women entrepreneurs' contribution to economic development of Rwanda and their challenges.

The research hypothesis state that there is positive correlation between women entrepreneurs' economic improvements and increase in their family welfare, savings, Export promotion, job creation. The hypothesis also states that the challenges that women entrepreneurs are facing affect their performance. To test this hypothesis primary data were collected on 60 women entrepreneurs in expo 2010, and analyzed. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to present and analyze the contribution of women entrepreneurs on economic development of Rwanda.

The results from the research analysis has shown that women entrepreneurs contribute a lot to the development of Rwanda 40% of women entrepreneur participate in decision making at local level, they contribute to national savings since their mean monthly savings contribution is 186,300 Rfw, only 36.7% of women entrepreneurs sell outside of their immediate local markets, women entrepreneurs (51%) contribute a lot in tax payment. The 60 women entrepreneurs included in the study have created 2439 jobs for themselves, their family and others (or an average of 40 per women entrepreneur).Therefore, the large majority (38.33%) of the women entrepreneurs had to depend on cooperatives for start-up finance. Research findings also show that 38.3% of women entrepreneurs faced the problem of lack of market while 21.67% lack trainings.

The recommendations given to the government of Rwanda for the development of women entrepreneurship were to increase women entrepreneurs' trainings, reduce taxes, enable raw materials for women entrepreneurs and expand the market for women entrepreneurs.