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ABSTRACT:

Women empowerment has become a subject of concern across the globe for the last few decades and the World Bank recommends that women empowerment should be a key area of social development programs. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of table banking on economic empowerment of women in SME’s in Kirinyaga county, Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were: To examine effect of savings mobilization on economic empowerment of women, to explore the effect of professional support on the growth of women small medium enterprises, to examine the effect of group cohesiveness on economic empowerment of women, to establish how contribution of networking in table banking has contributed to economic empowerment of women. The theoretical framework for this study was based upon one model and two theories which will give an in-depth analysis of the problem. These are Lewin’s model, Resource Base Theory by Barney (1991) and group cohesion theory. Data was collected by use of questionnaires with the target population of 308 registered members practicing table banking. The data obtained was analyzed using SPSS and presented in the form of percentages, graphs, pie charts and tables. Descriptive statistics correlation analysis and multiple correlation analysis were also used to analyze the data. Findings from the study revealed that there was a positive relationship between table banking and economic empowerment of women in Kirinyaga county. The study revealed that Savings mobilization enabled women to save and access loans easily from table banking, Education, management training, management skills were found to be a key factor for women to be conversant with in order to excel in their businesses. Through group cohesiveness women were able to work together and sort out conflicts among themselves without difficulties. The findings also revealed that developing networks, new business contacts and relationships by women who own SMEs had a big impact on the performance of their enterprises. The study concluded that table banking was critical in the economic empowerment of women. The study recommends that the concept of table banking should be embraced by the government and policies should be formulated and implemented, as this will make it easy for women to be economically empowered.

KEYWORDS:

Savings mobilization, professional support, Group cohesion, Table banking, Networking, Economic empowerment

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