Village Savings and Loan Association Services (VSLA) and Women Entrepreneurial Success; case study: lira sub-county

Abstract

Women financial needs are neglected by the financial institutions due to lack of collaterals security. VSLA services have the potential to bring financial access to rural women but the impact of these groups on entrepreneurial success is still very scarce. This research focused on the effects of VSLA services on women entrepreneurial success in Lira Sub – County. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the effect of savings on women entrepreneurial success, to examine the effect of savings on women entrepreneurial success, and to determine the effect of training on women entrepreneurial success. The researcher followed cross- section survey design and employed both qualitative and quantitative research approach. The study population was the 300 women group members in Lira sub – County and the sample size was 171 respondents determined by Cronbrach’s formula. The respondents were purposively selected for this study. The data collection instruments employed was questionnaire and Focused Group Discussions. The study used SPSS to analyze the primary data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the primary data collected from the women groups in Lira Sub – County. Specifically, the study findings showed that saving services has a positive strong relationship with entrepreneurial success (r = 0.616** , p < 0.01), loans have a fairly strong positive relationship with entrepreneurial success (r = 0.430**, p< 0.01) and training has a positive but negligible relationship with entrepreneurial success(r = 0.196* , p < 0.05). It was further established that saving affects entrepreneurial success by 53.8 %, loans affect entrepreneurial success by 28.9% and training equally affect entrepreneurial success by 1.2%. This study recommends that VSLA founder should prioritize business management and financial training;VSLA should establish advice and training policy for every member to attended training.