The Role of Table Banking on Economic Empowerment of Women in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

Abstract

Despite the fact that women constitute the single largest part of Kenyan population, majority, especially those in rural areas are faced with the challenge off accessing affordable savings and credit facilities. In effort to address this, the former Ministry of Planning and Vision 2030 through the Poverty Eradication Commission introduced table banking to assist women overcome financial challenges and attain economic empowerment. The study sought to investigate the role played by table banking in promoting economic empowerment of women in Kenya and in particular women in the Uasin Gishu County. The specific objectives were to examine ways through which table banking operates, establish ways table banking is economically empowering individual women and to investigate the challenges facing implementation and operations of table banking in Uasin Gishu County. Sustainable livelihood theory, economic independence theory, empowerment theory and capability theory were the theories guiding the study. A pilot study was conducted to test the clarity and suitability of selected research tools. Respondents in the pretest were drawn from three groups in Nyeri County and were asked to evaluate the questions for relevance, comprehension, meaning and clarity. Cronbanch Alpha was used to test reliability of the instrument and the cut-off point of 0.7 was considered. After the pre-test excise, the study was rolled using a descriptive survey research design targeting a population of 200 women groups distributed in Uasin Gishu County. A self­ administered semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the members of the group where 80% response rate was achieved. Primary data was analyzed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software to generate frequencies, mean, and percentages to present various aspects of the variables. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data while quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A regression model to establish the relationship between the independent and dependent variables was also generated. The findings of the study indicate that majority of women actively involved in table banking were married and aged between 26-40 years. Most of these women are self employed whose main purpose of joining group is to mobilize savings to enable them access credit to enable them establish income generating activities or boost the existing business ventures. Access to credit, women enterprises opportunities and financial management skills were found to have a positive impact on individual women hence leads to economic empowerment of women. Lack of collateral security to take up large loans by women and the tendency of men to control loan granted to women were cited as the main challenges.