The Effects Of Financial Inclusion On Female Entrepreneurship In Cameroon: Product Innovation, Market Development And Product Renovation

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue IV, April 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

The Effects Of Financial Inclusion On Female Entrepreneurship In Cameroon: Product Innovation, Market Development And Product Renovation

Emmanuel Nghoshigo Yakum, Dr. Nkiendem Felix
MSc Banking and Finance, HOD Banking and Finance; Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences University of Bamenda Cameroon

ABSTRACT
This paper examines the effects of financial inclusion on female entrepreneurship in Cameroon. The research applied secondary data from Cameroon Enterprise survey 2016. The researcher employed descriptive statistics and binary logit model analysis to analyse the data. The results of our findings revealed that Usage and access to working capital from commercial banks have positive and significant effects on female entrepreneurship in Cameroon; however, working capitals from Microfinance Institutions as well as Non-bank financial institutions both have positive and insignificant effects. The Pseudo R-Square shows that financial inclusion indicators used account for 7.6% of variations in female entrepreneurship. Variations in female entrepreneurship in Cameroon can therefore be explained by financial inclusion. Thus Laws on property ownership should be revised to permit women have access to acquired landed property to increase their collateral and make them obtained high loans from Commercial bank rather than only microloans from Microfinance Institutions. Microfinance Institutions should reduce the interest rate in order to attract female entrepreneurs
Key Words: Access/usage of credit, commercial banks, microfinance institutions, non-banking financial institutions, female entrepreneurship

1. INTRODUCTION

Till date, little has been done on women financial inclusion (those that are not part of the public service), and the degree to which such groups as the poor, women, and youth are excluded from formal financial systems. Systematic indicators of the use of different financial services had been lacking for most economies. Financial systems in Africa generally lag behind those in other developing economies, even though many significant improvements were implemented within the past decades(World Bank, 2012). An international comparison of private credit to GDP – the main indicator of financial depth – shows a gap with other developing economies For example, the ratio of private credit to GDP averaged 24% of GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 and 39% in North Africa, compared with 57% for all other developing economies, and 72% for high-income economies (Author 2022). Available evidence from literature above shows that women’s disproportionate access barriers prevent them from improving their lives.
Despite series of efforts by all stakeholders in that direction, still much is desired if any meaningful progress needs to be achieved. That is, why in recent times, the World Bank Group of Central African State (BEAC) and other financial institutions, across the globe are working seriously to promote financial inclusion of women to help them achieve gender equity and poverty reduction as well as promote their participation in entrepreneurship activities. Increasingly, women’s entrepreneurship is seen as a live wire for the social and economic transformation of society due to the critical role they play both within the realms of households and the community. In an attempt to highlight the importance of women’s entrepreneurship to society, Lokhande (2003) posited that up to fifty % of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in all countries are owned by women.

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