POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEMALE-OWNED BUSINESSES AND POVERTY REDUCTION IN KAFANCHAN, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Despite shouldering primary caregiving responsibilities, women's socio-cultural context often restricts their access to resources and entrepreneurship, exacerbating their vulnerability to poverty. This highlights the significance of exploring the role of female entrepreneurs in poverty alleviation, particularly in contexts where women's economic empowerment is crucial for sustainable development. The study determined the relationship between female-owned businesses and poverty alleviation in Kafanchan. This study adopted a quantitative approach to data collection. Eighty-three (83) semi-structured questionnaires were administered to randomly selected respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze the collected data. SPSS Version 20.0 package was used for data analysis.  The findings of this study indicate that female entrepreneurs in Kafanchan were able to; increase on the number and quality of meals, pay their children’s school fees, as well as purchase clothing, which ranked 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd with standard deviation (SD) of 1.26, 1.28, and 1.43 respectively among other ways female entrepreneurs utilized the profit accrued from their businesses. Similarly, the result of the inferential statistics indicates a significant positive correlation between female-owned businesses and poverty alleviation with a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient of 0.783 in the study area. This concludes that the contributions of female entrepreneurs in the study area are multifaceted and impact various aspects of the community, including economic growth, job creation and social development by promoting gender equality. It is recommended that policymakers should prioritize initiatives that promote gender equality, provide access to finance and business development services, and create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship.