The study focused on funding availability for small and medium enterprises for women entrepreneurs. In order to do a situational analysis the study was conducted in the Nelson Mandela Metro looking at the operations of Community Investment Fund (CIF) as a case study. The CIF was a partnership between a local non-governmental organization (NGO) operating in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth and one of the four big banks in the Republic of South Africa. The study investigated the challenges that women as entrepreneurs face in particular. The qualitative approach was used as methodology and the sampling of five (5) of the seventeen (17) women beneficiaries and their businesses were conducted. Given the fact that the Republic of South Africa has a high unemployment rate and the government‟s strategy of providing support for small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs), the study provided an opportunity to look at the realities that people with ideas are faced when starting what seemed to be a daunting task of starting a business. The research findings provides conclusive evidence that starting a business in the current economic climate is a difficult task and it is more challenging if you are a woman with no financial securities. It is therefore of imperative importance that an approach to funding and supporting women entrepreneurs be implemented to create much needed jobs in the country and address the gap between the first and second economy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9107 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Mbaco, Michelle Merle |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | viii, 50 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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