Provision of business information to small and medium women entrepreneurs in Buwunga Sub-County, Bugiri District, Uganda

Abstract

Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a critical role in the world economy. They not only provide a vast range of employment opportunities but are also a breeding ground for innovations in all sectors of the economy. SMEs make up 70% of Uganda’s business sector and when the Micro businesses which employ less than 5 people are included the figure comes up to 99%. All the major sectors in Uganda’s economy are also dominated by SMEs. However, despite accounting for a big percentage of Uganda’s business sector, SMEs still heavily rely on internal information or retained earnings to meet their long-term information and financing needs which significantly limits their ability to take advantage of new market opportunities, access new technology, and build internal capacity. Therefore, this paper looks at the provision of business information to small and medium women entrepreneurs in Buwunga sub county, Bugiri District, Uganda with particular emphasis on how business enterprises can be developed and promoted so as to fill the Small and Medium Enterprises’ long-term financing and business information gap. The purpose of this study was to investigate the provision of business information to small and medium women entrepreneurs in Buwunga Sub- County, Bugiri district, Uganda. The specific study objectives were to determine the business information needs of small and medium-sized female entrepreneurs, to ascertain the sources of business information that these entrepreneurs use, to determine the information access channels available to these entrepreneurs, to identify the obstacles these women face in obtaining business information, and to suggest strategies for improving the dissemination of business information to small and medium-sized women entrepreneurs. The study was carried out using convergent parallel design, Mixed-Methods research approach and the research process was symbolized as quantitative and qualitative approach. The purposive and snowball sampling method was used to select respondents (who included women entrepreneurs) with in-depth business information and knowledge relating to the topic under study. Data was collected using three methods: interviews, observation, and questionnaire. Thematic analysis and the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that respondents’ commonly needed business information regarding family budgeting followed by business information on market price, loan facilities and income generating activities. The women entrepreneurs consulted informal than formal sources of business information and social-political meetings like burial ceremonies, radio, mobile phones, weddings and harvest festivals were the most used channel of communication. The major challenges that respondents faced were lack of awareness and knowledge on where to get useful business information and financial obstacles. The strategy seconded by the respondents was exposing and training the women entrepreneurs in different income generating activities and women empowerment through education and enlightenment programs. The study recommended regular training of women in income generating activities, financial literacy programs, making loan facilities available to the women entrepreneurs for business investments, repackaging of information, business information entrepreneurship, introduction of adult education in different villages, deployment of extension workers and gender sensitization.