ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS INFLUENCING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS: A CONCEPTUAL REVIEW

Women entrepreneurs have become important players in the entrepreneurial landscape. In Africa, the equal right of women and their equal participation in the social, cultural, economic and political life have remained elusive. As such, they are still the main victims of poverty, social prejudice, lack of access to health services and education. African women entrepreneurship development is generally inadequate and beset with numerous constraints and challenges, which have to do with culture, religion, entrepreneurial behaviours such as lack of innovativeness, ability and willingness to take calculated risks, determination, and lack of economic independence and their total perceptions in entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to examine the environmental factors influencing women entrepreneurial intentions. The study found women entrepreneurs operate in an unfavorable business environment, characterized by various challenges ranging from infrastructural deficiency, low access and high cost of finance, weak institutions and many barriers to formal economic participation. This abysmal performance could be traceable to limited education, rudimentary skills, low household and business income, lack of savings and social networks, not possessing the required professional relationships, lack of mentorship, inadequacy of relevant experience, Limited access to support services which includes loan levels suited to their business needs, technical and managerial training. These problems arise from limited capacity outreach of existing institutions as well as the inability of women entrepreneurs to pay for such services.