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The paper explores the impact of financial exclusion on financial and human poverty amongst women in Pakistan. The findings suggest that persistent financial exclusion, gender discrimination and conservative religious values adversely impact women's empowerment. There is an inverse correlation between the size of microcredit and women's financial poverty, which is not the case for human poverty. Larger families experienced higher rates of poverty reduction than smaller families. The study offers evidence and supports theories on the impact of microcredit upon poverty alleviation. These findings inform policy makers, women entrepreneurs and microfinance institutions. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses two rounds of survey to examine the relative returns to micro-credit for small-scale businesses in two regions of Ghana. Propensity scores matching and the nearest neighbour matching are used to assess the return to micro-loans on retail businesses of clients and non-clients. Micro-credit impacts on sales, stock, expenses and profit for clients as compared with non-clients. Women-owned businesses produce higher returns from micro-credit than men-owned businesses. Individual and enterprise characteristics influence access to micro-credit. The paper offers policy recommendations to microfinance institutions on whom and which business activity to give credit. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women entrepreneurs account for a sizable majority of small-scale entrepreneurs in Africa. A minor change in their capitalization could assure their participation in diverse productive activities and has a large impact on their lives and families, as well as on the economy. While their access to credit is impeded profoundly because of the regulatory constraints imposed by formal financial institutions, on one hand, the informal sector interest rates as high as 300 per cent are literally untenable, on the other. The paper investigates the contribution of microfinance to the economic improvement of women small-scale entrepreneurs in Addis Ababa. The research assesses the impact of credit and saving services on the economic improvement of women small-scale entrepreneurs by using secondary data and a quantitative analysis based on questionnaires and interviews. The study probes financial facets such as income, savings, credit, financial services, family obligations and access to education. It concludes that women entrepreneurs who obtain microfinance face a number of problems. The study exposes the overall environment constraining women entrepreneurs on financial fronts and suggests some measures of relief to ameliorate the situation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the literature on women entrepreneurs in developing countries and presents evidence from a case study undertaken during 2001 and 2002 in Gambia examining the challenges facing women entrepreneurs in the small enterprise sector. The article attempt to discuss the gendered nature of the barriers to survival and growth, particularly the low productivity of sectors in which women entrepreneurs operate, the difficulty in accessing capital for expansion and the need to reconcile business with domestic activities and the propensity to view business as part of an overall livelihood diversification strategy. The article argues that further to addressing specific gender needs of women entrepreneurs, policy and support mechanisms must be sensitive to and geared towards both enterprises with potential and aspirations for growth and diversification and those whose primary objective is that of sustaining livelihoods. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]