Abstract:
Women in the world account the highest economic growth through the economic activities they
engage in. Even though women entrepreneurs in Pallisa district have been known to engage in
small scale retail enterprises, there has been a need to grow their businesses beyond the current
level. However, hindering factors such as lower academic standards, higher interest rates, low
income from these businesses and socio-cultural constraints have contributed to poor growth and
management of these businesses. Access to credit by these women has also been hampered by
these factors. The study investigated the challenges of access to credit on the growth of women
owned enterprises in Pallisa district. The study was guided by the overall objective of identifying
reasons why women owning small enterprises do not access credit. The study reviewed related
literature and identified a gap in the literature. Use of questionnaires and interview schedules to
collect primary data was preferred in this study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. It targeted women entrepreneurs in Pallisa district and the management of various micro-
finance institutions in the region. The desired sample size was identified using t Sample Sizes
where the sample size comprised of 42 respondents. SPSS was used to code and enter data for
analysis. The study adopted both the qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to achieve the
objective of the study where the former used descriptive statistics where graphs, tables and pie
charts have been used. This research used quantitative analysis to analyze collected data. The
study established that education levels affects access to credit by women entrepreneurs, income
levels affect access to credit by women entrepreneurs, interest rate affects access to credit by
women entrepreneurs, socio cultural aspects affect access to credit by women entrepreneurs.
