African Journal of Social Sciences Volume 3 Number 3 (2013) 160-171 ISSN 2045-8452 (Print) ISSN 2045-8460 (Online) www.sachajournals.com WOMEN IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A MEANS TO SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD IN GHANA: A STUDY OF THE UPPER WEST REGION MUMUNI I. Aliata1; INSAH Baba1; BOWAN A. Patrick 2 1 School of Business, Department of Secretaryship and Management Studies, Wa Polytechnic, Wa, Wa Upper West Region, Ghana 2 School of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Wa Polytechnic, Wa Upper West Region, Region Ghana ABSTRACT In the developing world, women work hard at a variety of tasks with little control over productive resources. This study therefore examined the characteristics of women entrepreneurs, identified sources of venture capital and analysed factors that militate against women entrepreneurs. The study employed questionnaires and interviews for data collection. Simple random sampling, sampling, multistage and purposive sampling techniques were employed for data collection. Graphs, charts percentages and tables were used for analysis of the findings. The study revealed that the major barriers facing women entrepreneurs are access to credit, credit, managerial skills and cultural barriers. Also majority of the women entrepreneurs were within the 36-45 36 age cohort with educational level up to primary school. Further, the main source of financing businesses was own savings with bank loans registering the lowest. Therefore, skills training through education and credit-access credit access policies targeted at women are recommended in this regard. Keywords:: Entrepreneurship, Business activity, Women Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs Ghana. JEL Classifications:: D92, E2, L26, R42. 1. INTRODUCTION Women in the developing world work hard at a variety of tasks with little time for leisure and little control over productive resources due to the patriarchal norm of property ownership in parts of the world. Yet they often assume a large share of the responsibility respons for the survival of the families. According to Meier (1995), women in rural areas throughout the third world are typically farmers. He further noted that in Sub-Saharan Sub Saharan Africa, subsistence farming is essentially a female activity and women are the primarily primarily labourers on small farms. Further, Adriana (1997) cites women’s multiple roles: They are expected to look after home and family, which impedes their progress in vocations outside the home. In addition, she noted that Ghana’s prevailing social norms norm affect the ability of women-owned owned businesses to function as bigger male-dominated dominated businesses. Many deals are conducted in hotels after business hours. In a country where women are still largely regarded as homemakers,, the question frequently pops up “whatat is a married woman doing in a hotel with some men?” The most important clue to a woman’s status anywhere in the world is her degree of participation in economic life and her control over property. Societies divide and specialise labour tasks to some extent ent and this division of labour has been done along sex lines consciously and unconscious ously where men carry out tasks that take them outside ou the home and  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 women are largely restricted to homecare and childbearing. Women are generally perceived to be patient, dependent and passive and their work considered to be unexciting and repetitive (Leavitt, 1971). In newly industrialized countries such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Nigeria, various studies show that women are increasingly confined to home work and in marginal service jobs in the urban informal sector. In this sector, employment is casual and irregular with low incomes. It is also characteristic of most developing countries that many young and unmarried women (in the 20-25 age group) obtain employment in the formal sector (Meier, 1995). Generally, women in Africa continue to face enormous obstacles. The growing recognition of their contributions has not translated into significantly improved access to resources or increased decision-making powers. Neither has the dynamism that women display in the economic, cultural and social lives of their communities through their associations and informal networks been channelled into creating new models of participation and leadership. While all women around the world share many social disabilities, one must not lose sight of the fact that strong differences exist between them. This is where problems arise when any group of women claim to speak for and on behalf of others simply because they are all women. According to Andriana (1997), women-controlled businesses are often small. Women’s participation in government sponsored trade missions is usually quite minimal. She notes that in Australia and Canada, the usual participation by women is in the area of 3-4%. In an effort to address some of these problems in Africa, the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs (GAWE) organised the Global Women Entrepreneurs Trade and Investment forum. Also, about eighty percent of women owned businesses are stuck at the “micro” level. They are unable to expand because they lack properly coordinated support, cheap and long term credit and sufficient access to new technologies (Dovi, 2006). According to World Bank estimates cited by Dovi (2006), most businesses in Ghana, which account for 70% of employment in the country, fall within the categories of “micro”, small and medium enterprises. They range from farming activities, agribusiness, light manufacturing such as garments and textiles and arts and crafts. The objectives of the study are to examine the socio-economic and cultural barriers to women business start-ups, examine the characteristics of women entrepreneurs and identify sources of venture capital for women entrepreneurs. The paper is divided into five sections. Section one is the introduction. Section two presents stylised facts about women entrepreneurship in Ghana. Literature review is considered in section three. Section four presents the discussion and summary of findings. Finally, section five provides a conclusion and recommendations to the study. 2. WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN GHANA According to the 2000 population census, the population of Ghana was at18.9 million. Women make up about 50.52% of this total. With an economically active population of 8.2 million (15 years +), women account for approximately 50% of the labour force and are found in almost all kinds of economic activities in the economy; agriculture (including fishing and forestry), industry (manufacturing) and services (especially wholesale and retail trade). The majority however are found in farming (agriculture, fish processing, animal husbandry and forestry) and other informal sector activities such as wholesale and retail trading, with the least of women found in administrative and managerial jobs. According to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) 2007, women make up about 50 percent of the labor force in Ghana. Worthy of note is the fact that majority are mostly involved in micro enterprises, suggesting that gender parity in economic activity could add as much as 2.5-3 percent to Ghana’s current aggregate output. It is estimated that some 80% of women in Ghana are engaged in various economic activities and they predominate in the informal micro-small to medium scale agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors of the 161  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 71 economy. However their contribution to economic growth and development is not adequately represented because the majority of their activities are in the informal low-growth low low-return areas and are basically subsistent. The Ghana living standards survey 5 (GLSS 5) results has it from the 2000 census that while about 38% of females had never been to school, only 22% of males are found in this situation. Thus approximately twice as many females as males have never been to school. In contrast only 9.7% of females have secondary education or higher as against 17.9% for males. In terms of school attendance, the GLSS5 shows that the proportion of females attending school is lower than that of males. This condition holds irrespective of the the locality or age group when compared to their male counterparts. This data shows that in spite of the relatively large number of females in Ghana, more males have access to education than females. In terms of locality, only 52% of rural women have been to school as against 75% of rural males have also been to school. In the urban areas the results are 87.8% for males and 74% for females. In terms of literacy, while about 6 out of every 10 men are literate, less that 4 out of every 10 women are literate. Locality distribution shows that 66% of urban adults are literate compared with 41% for rural adults. Women form over 70% of entrepreneurs involved in micro and small-scale scale businesses in the private informal sector, which contributes substantially to national income. Table 1: Adult Unemployment Rate by Locality and Sex (in %) Source: Adopted from Amu, 2006. In terms of women’s employment, the private sector (formal and informal) caters for about 91% whiles the public sector employs only 4.4% of economically active women (15 years and above). The population of females 7 years and above is about 40% (7,592,852) of the entire population out of which 59% (4,483,021) are economically active. About 81.2% of the economically active women are employed while 11.5% are unemployed. According to the 2000 census about 7% of women had jobs but did not work. The data for women women who are 15 years and above is not significantly different from the above age group, and it shows an economically active population of about 82% who are employed and 10.7% of them who are unemployed. There are generally low female participation rates in Ghana’s formal sector. The GLSS4 shows that only about 6.2% of females are formally employed in both the public (3.3%) and private (2.9%) sectors. This markedly contrasted with that of men, which shows formal sector employment of 22.8%. Furthermore, women in formal sector employment are mostly concentrated in the lower ranks and/or non managerial positions and thus their voices are not heard at the decision-making making levels. This assertion is supported by the 2000 census data, which puts the number of women in managerial and administrative positions at 0.2 percent (9,543 persons). On the contrary, more women are found in the informal sector than men. Out of the 93.8% of women in informal sector employment, 48.7% of them are in agriculture related self- self employmentt while 45.1% are in non-agricultural non agricultural private informal and self-employment. self Unemployment rates by locality and sex are shown in table 1. 162  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 3. LITERATURE REVIEW Dzisi et al. (2008), in their study noted that in Ghana, women are engaged in seven major business sectors namely, trading (26%), services (21%), agro-processing (16%) and manufacturing (12%). The remaining are textiles and fabrics (12%), agriculture (5%) and construction (4%). Delmar and Davidson (2000) and Shane and Venkataraman (2000), noted that there may be different factors explaining the nature of women and men entrepreneurship. They explained that these factors have limited value in explaining the emerging entrepreneurship status of women. Ghanaian women entrepreneurs have suffered greatly from the perception that the entrepreneurial activities they engage in do not contribute to economic development. This is because their entrepreneurial activities are concentrated in the small and medium enterprises sector (Dzisi, 2008). On the impact of small-scale economic activities of women in Ghana, Dolphyne (1991) noted that it has often been undervalued. Further, the specific impact of the role of women in the country’s economic development is not well known or recognized by Ghanaian society, government and other stakeholders. Crampton and Mishra (1999) noted that several problems beset Ghanaian women entrepreneurs. Among those identified are socio-cultural factors, limited access to start-up capital, lesser skill endowments and limited access to productive inputs. These factors as noted inhibit the creation and development of entrepreneurial ventures (Aryeetey et al. 1994; Britwum et al. 2006; Ewusi, 1987). Research findings show that small and medium enterprises are dominated by women. Also, it is noted that women are important drivers of growth in many of the world’s economies (Minnitti et al., 2005). Little attention is paid to research on the specific needs of women entrepreneurs (Brush 1992; Brush and Hisrich 1999). According to OECD (2004), women have limited access to knowledge and productive resources and in most cases have a lower societal position than men. This accounts for the difference in the personal and business profile of women and men. Studies have revealed that this difference is manifested in the sectors where business is run, product development, pursuance of goals and structure of business (Brush 1992; Carter, Williams and Reynolds 1997; Chaganti and Parasuraman 1996; Fischer, Reuber and Dyke 1983). Researching into the characteristics of women entrepreneurs, educational qualifications, age at business commencement and business type were investigated. Bennet and Dann (2000), Dolinsky et al. (1993) and Hisrich and Brush (1983) in separate studies have noted that typical woman entrepreneur marries, has children, and works as a teacher, administrator or secretary after obtaining a liberal arts degree. According to Hisrich and Brush (1983), women’s business venture in a service area begins when they are thirty-five, with their biggest problems being finance, credit and lack of business training. Furthermore, Kitching et al. (2005) opined that women entrepreneurs in India, revealed that most women entrepreneurs were between the ages of 31 and 45. They noted further that most of them were married, had children and had started their businesses after marriage. Their research also revealed that 17 percent had only primary school or less education, 35 percent had an undergraduate or college degree, while 22 percent had postgraduate qualifications. Only two percent had a vocational qualification. According to Woldie and Adersua (2004), in Nigeria for example, the majority of women entrepreneurs were between the ages of 31 and 55. A large percentage of them were married and had children, and most of them had attended college or graduate school. Researching into the motives for entrepreneurship, two categories of entrepreneurs have been identified: those motivated by economic needs and those seeking self-realization. Other studies have differentiated between necessity entrepreneurs and opportunity entrepreneurs. They opined that necessity entrepreneurs engage into it due to lack of choice whereas opportunity entrepreneurs do due to the quest for independence (Aidis et al., 2006; Maritz, 2004; Perunović, 163  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 2005).Adom and Williams (2012) used face to face structured interviews with 80 informal entrepreneurs to evaluate the motives of informal entrepreneurs in Koforidua, Ghana. Their study established that women informal entrepreneurs are predominantly necessity-driven while those who are principally intentional participants in informal entrepreneurship are men. They further opined that women who initially entered informal entrepreneurship out of necessity have over time become more opportunity-driven entrepreneurs. 4. METHODS AND MATERIALS Wa, Nadowli, Jirapa, Tumu, Lawra and Nandom were purposively selected for this study because these are the areas where there is higher concentrated economic activities in the Upper West Region. The administration of questionnaires was preceded by a pilot testing and analysis of the preliminary outcome. Face to face interviews were conducted to obtain the narrated experiences of fifty (ten from each district) women entrepreneurs in the region. Furthermore, survey questionnaires were administered to a sample of both female and male entrepreneurs in each of the districts and used to investigate women entrepreneurship as means to sustainable livelihood. The data analysis involved both qualitative and quantitative methods. However, to allow for better understanding of the issues regarding barriers and strategies for starting and financing small businesses, information for male entrepreneurs was collected as a benchmark for comparison. 5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 5.1 FACTORS THAT MOTIVATE WOMEN TO START BUSINESSES The women entrepreneurs were motivated primarily by the desire to create something new, the desire for autonomy, wealth and financial independence, the achievement of personal objectives and the propensity for action. The excitement of entrepreneurship was another major motivator. Importantly, most entrepreneurs stressed that the objective was never money for its own sake. They wanted to leave a legacy in the form of a profitable long-lasting business. Table 2: The Driving Forces behind women entrepreneur in the UWR of Ghana No choice By chance Forced Entrepreneurship Informed Pure Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Divorce marriage Apprenticeship Education skills Death of friends Imitation Mentoring Interest husband retirement Independence Coaching passion Love for wealth training in born Job loss Source: Authors’ construct 5.2 GENDER OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS In the private informal sector however, women form a majority of entrepreneurs involved in micro and small-scale businesses, which contributes substantially to national income. The proportion of female stood at 51% against 49% for male. This is shown in figure 1. Women represented majority of those engaged in small business set ups, indicating that there are more women into such businesses than their male counterparts. 164  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 Figure 1: Gender of Entrepreneurs 77 Number of entrepreneurs 76 75 74 73 Female Male GENDER OF ENTREPRENEURS Source: Authors’ construct 5.3 LABOUR FORCE The potential workforce is derived from the population that is available and able to work. The legally defined workforce comprise of the population within the age group 15-64. However not all those found in this group are likely to be actively engaged in the labour force. Some members of the group (15–25) are likely to be schooling while some others (55-64) may be retired, home-makers or would have reduced their workload. The age cohorts considered for the entrepreneurs ranged from 15 years and above to 45 years and above. The dominant age cohort is 36-45 years. This is followed keenly by the age group 26-35. This is shown in figure 2. There is none in business belonging to the less than 15 age group. This situation conforms with the nationally agreed definition of active labour force. Figure 2: Age of respondents Age of Entrepreneurs 15-25 26-35 36-45 >45 0 10 20 30 40 50 NUMBER OF ENTREPRENEURS Source: authors’ construct 5.4 ACCESS TO EDUCATION Women also lack business and marketing skills that may allow them to put together viable business proposals. Women have less access to formal channels that provide comprehensive skills training because they are mostly unaware of the existence of such programmes and even when they are aware, their time constraints may limit their access to such programmes. Majority of businesses were owned by those with educational level up to primary school. This is followed by those who have not been to school at all. Figure 3 depicts this situation. A small number of business owners have their education to the tertiary level. None of the business owners were trained teachers. 165  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 Figure 3. Educational Level 60 Entrepreneurs Number of 40 20 0 Uneducated Primary JHS/Mid/Sch SHS/Tertiary Train. College EDUCATIONAL LEVEL Source: Authors’construct 5.5 TYPE OF BUSINESS ACTIVITIES The predominance of women in small business set-ups is found in the following sub- sectors: trade, small-scale manufacturing and food processing. Apart from entrepreneurs, women are also employees and self-employed part time workers. In the informal sector, women tend to conduct activities that take up less capital and require the use of their existing skills than men. Petty trading and pito brewing are the leading businesses of women representing 28% and 17% respectively. The others are hair dressing, dress making, shea butter extraction, rice parboiling and dawadawa production with each representing less than 10%. This is shown in figure 4. This could be explained to a certain extent by women’s lack of access to credit facilities and their un-willingness (in some cases) to access such facilities where they are available. Figure 4: Category of business 50 entrepreneurs 40 Number of 30 20 10 0 Petty Groundnuts Dress Dawadawa Hair Rice Shea butter Pito trading extraction making production dressing parboiling extraction brewing CATEGORY OF BUSINESS Source: Authors’ construct 5.6 PRICING OF GOODS AND MEANS OF TRANSPORT The pricing of a product or service is a key element in determining the profitability of your business. Unless you have a product or service that offers a unique or additional benefit, if your price is too high, demand will reduce and you may price yourself out of the market. Unless you have a sustainable cost advantage, if your price is too low, your sales volume may not generate enough revenue to cover the costs associated with your business. People may also believe that the product or service does not offer value at such a low price. Majority of entrepreneurs use the cost based pricing representing 62% whiles 38% use value based to price their products. An active transport is necessary for easier movement of goods. If this is not designed and implemented, head-loading by women will continue to persist and thus aggravate the time burdens of women. The various means of transporting goods are the head, truck, bicycle and animals. Some of these animals include donkeys and cattle. The most common means used is the head. Animal and truck use is very little among these means. Panel B of figure 5 depicts this situation. Majority of entrepreneurs see taxes and tolls payment as moderate. Others who say tax payment is too high and high represent 25% and 23% respectively. Some business owners still avoid taxes and tolls. 166  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 71 Figure 5: Pricing Methods Means Of Transport And Taxes And Tolls Panel A: Pricing methods entrepreneurs 100 Number of 50 0 Cost based Value based PRICING METHODS Panel anel B: Means of Transport Number of entrepreneurs 80 60 40 20 0 Head Motor Bicycle Truck Animal MEANS OF TRANSPORTING GOODS Figure 6. Taxes and tolls/Panel Panel C: Taxes and Tolls Taxes and Tolls 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 NUMBER OF ENTREPRENEURS Source: Authors’ construct 5.7 ACCESS TO CREDIT Access to credit is a fundamental need for business. Women basically lack access to credit probably because of their low level of savings as well as the lack of the necessary collateral needed for the acquisition and repayment required for a loan. The various vari sources of funding businesses are inheritance, own savings, family and friends and through loans. This is shown in figure 7. Majority access their funds through own savings representing 70 percent. Very few fund their businesses through loans and assistance assistance from family and friends. 167  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 Figure 7: Sources of Finance 150 entrepreneurs Number of 100 50 0 Own savings Inheritance Family & friends Loans SOURCES OF FINANCE Source: Authors’ construct 5.8 PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES, PACKAGING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES The various strategies employed by business owners are the use of bill boards, local FM, door to door, display. Some give discounts, provide customer service such as good reception, education or advice. Others also use hygiene factors such as clean and neat environment. Packaging material used include; bottles, boxes, gallons, pots, basins, sack, leaves, paper, pieces of cloths and polythene bag. In some cases customer own demand such as gorges, bowls, containers, and pieces of cloths are used as material for packaging. Much of the business activities such as pito brewing, shea butter and groundnut oil extraction, dawadawa processing, rice parboiling, rely on fuel wood and has a threat to the environment due to significant degradation of our forest. Another source of worry is the excessive heat generated in the cause of pito brewing. Such heat is a nuisance to neighbors and the environment. In the case of shea-butter extraction, waste disposal poses a problem. The by- product is disposed on bear land, preventing it from being properly useful for both agricultural and hygiene purposes. 5.9 PROBLEMS MILITATING AGAINST THE FUNCTIONING OF BUSINESSES Among the factors which the entrepreneurs perceived as hindrances to their business growth were lack of market access, high tax rates and lack of raw materials. Whiles others strongly disagree that market access is a hindrance to business, majority strongly agree that it poses a problem in operating business. Majority strongly disagree that high taxes and a few agreed that it is a problem. Majority very strongly agreed that lack of raw materials is a problem and affecting their business operation. This is shown in figure 8. Figure 8: Panel A - Market Access 100 entrepreneurs Number of 50 0 Strongly agree Very strongly agree Strongly disagree Very strongly disagree LACK OF MARKET ACCESS Figure 8: Panel B: High Taxes 100 entrepreneurs Number of 0 Strongly agree Very strongly agree Strongly disagree Very strongly disagree HIGH TAXES 168  African Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3 Number 3 (2013), pp. 160-171 Figure 8: Panel C: Lack of Raw Materials 80 entrepreneurs 60 Number of 40 20 0 Very strongly agree Strongly agree Strongly disagree Very strongly disagree LACK OF RAW MATERIALS Figure 8: Panel D: Lack Of Access To Machinery 60 entrepreneurs Number of 40 20 0 Very strongly agree Strongly agree Strongly disagree Very strongly disagree LACK OF ACCESS TO MACHINERY Sources of Panel A-D: Authors’ construct 6. CONCLUSION In the developing world, women work hard at a variety of tasks with little time for leisure and little control over productive resources due to patriarchal norm of property ownership. 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Female Entrepreneurs in a Transitional Economy: Businesswomen in Nigeria, International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 31, no.1/2, 2004, pp.78-93. Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. ISSN 0306-8293. © 2010-2013 Sacha International Academic Journals, Meridian Centre, 258 Kingsland Road, Hackney, London E8 4DG, England, United Kingdom. In Compliance with the Standards Approved by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Abstracting and Indexing in: IndexCopernicus USA, British International Libraries, Social Science Research Network Worldwide, Econlit (USA), Google Scholar. For the Advancement of Knowledge to the World. www.sachajournals.com 171