Most of the women in Kenya run businesses in the informal economy and face various difficulties including pay and promotion imbalances, as well as obstacles in accessing information, technology and finance to expand their enterprises. As a result, their manufacturing businesses are still micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the informal sector – unable to grow and enter the formal economy. The International Centre for Research on Women and Kenya Association of Manufacturers published on Tuesday that the manufacturing contributes about 10 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product and women account for only 17 per cent in the sector.
The study also found that in exchange for credit facilities and compliance clearances, sexual exploitations have occurred. Naomi Ndele, head of SME and agribusiness at Kenya’s KCB Bank, said that the banking policies were issued by men to support men and so a lot of lending policies and rules are very restrictive and do not favour women. She also added that there were some financial products on the market that were geared towards women, they did not include the sizable credit often required for manufacturing businesses.
Data source: Reuters