ROLE OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN RURAL COMMUNITIES: THE CASE OF AKOKO NORTH-EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

The study assessed the role of female entrepreneurs in poverty alleviation in rural communities of Akoko North East Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria. It specifically analysed the socioeconomic characteristics of women entrepreneurship and assessed the contribution of female-owned businesses to poverty alleviation in the study area. The main reason for this study was due to the fact that most studies on the relationship between businesses development and poverty alleviation have concentrated on aggregate effects of small businesses on poverty reduction with little attention on individual traits of the businesses and gender issue in rural areas. The target population was all the women-owned enterprises from five communities in Akoko North-East Local Government Area in Ondo state of Nigeria. The choice of these communities was based on the concentration of women enterprises. The businesses were first identified and 50 per cent of the enterprises in each community were sampled using systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected using questionnaire on a sample of 205 enterprises. The result of descriptive statistics showed that 75% micro enterprises owners sourced their income mainly from their businesses, 85% of small scale enterprises (SSEs) sourced their income from their businesses while 67% of the medium scale enterprise owners sourced their income from their businesses. This suggests that the SMEs businesses constitute the main source of livelihood for all the scales of business women owners. Majority of respondents (82%), who chose income from small businesses as their number one source, indicated an improvement in their standard of living, and 18% reported no change. There was also evidence of an increase in the number of SMEs that have grown from microenterprises to small scale and medium scale over the span of the last five years apart from the substantial improvement in the income and consumption. The study therefore concluded that female-owned microenterprises have played key role in poverty reduction among the businesses' owners in Akoko Division through income generation and job creation.