Emprendimiento y Gestión de Organizaciones

Women Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation in Awka Metropolis

Abstract

Agbionu EO, Agbionu CU, Ikon MA and Chinwe OV

Despite the provision of soft loans by the last presidential government in Nigeria through the Central Bank, women entrepreneurs in Awka metropolis still complain of lack of financial assistance from government and poor moral support from members of their families as impediments against their contributions in poverty alleviation. In view of the above, the study examined the relationship between government financial assistance and family moral support on the performance and commitment of women entrepreneurs in Awka metropolis. Research questions and hypotheses were formulated based on the research problems and objectives. Survey design was used to collect the data by the use of a structured questionnaire. The instrument was subjected to validity and reliability tests and found adequate for the study. The data collected were analyzed using frequency distributions and percentages. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to test the hypotheses while Probable Error of Correlation was used to test for the significance of correlation. The result of the significance shows that the results of the Probable Errors in the two hypotheses were both lower than the coefficients of correlations. This made the two null hypotheses to be rejected while the alternatives were accepted. Major finding, conclusion and recommendations are that since the financial support from government and moral support from family members were found to be very significant in the performance and commitment of women entrepreneurs in Awka metropolis for poverty alleviation purposes, they should be highly encouraged.