By Akpodono, Oghenewairhe Stephen
Female entrepreneurship is the process where female organise all the factors of production, undertake risks, and provide employment to others while Economic development is a process of societal advancement, where improvement in the well being of people are generated through strong partnership between all sectors, corporate bodies and other groups in the society. Female entrepreneurs face gender biases stemming from socio-economic factors or specific biases in laws such as inheritance laws. Female entrepreneurs have a problems of access to finance and credit facilities. Argument abound as to the impact of female entrepreneurship on economic development ;while some believe that female entrepreneurship impacts positively on the economy, others hold a contrary view. Empirical evidence from different countries has been used to substantiate these lines of argument, but in Nigeria works in this area have been scanty. Hence, this study is designed to fill the gap. By localizing the research with emphasis on the south East- Nigeria.The study investigated the relationship between Female entrepreneurship and economic development in South-East Nigeria. The study specific objective were to Identify the factors that motivate female entrepreneurs in starting their own businesses and the nature of relationship with economic development, Determin the challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in managing their businesses, in achieving food security , Assess the contributions female entrepreneurs make in employment generation, Analyse the roles of the government in assisting female entrepreneurs towards achieving wealth creation, Explore the effects of new ventures by female entrepreneurs on environmental sustainability and Examine the impact of female entrepreneurs’ education in achieving economic development of South-East Nigeria.The study adopted the survey design. The population of the study was 2520 female owned SMs in South East Nigeria.the sample size of 553 was obtained using Freund and Williams sample size determination method. Bowler formula for proportional allocation was used to select respondent in each of the state of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. Data was collected using the designed questionnaire and oral interview guide. Face validity approach was done to ensure that the variable measured had content validity. The instrument was check for reliability using the Crobach’s alpha reliability method. The Crobach’s Alpha coefficient yielded 0.85, indicating the reliability of the instrument. The data collect was analysed using Pearson, Kendall, spearman and simple regression model. The findings indicated that: The factors that motivate female entrepreneurs in starting their own businesses had a positive and significant relationship with Economic development (α = 0.234, p < 0.05, The challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in managing their businesses, had a positive and non-significant relationship with food security (α = 0.134, p > 0.05), the contributions of female entrepreneurs had a positive and significant impact on employment generation (α = 0.56, t-value = 3.007, R2 = 0.084, Adj R2 = 0.075, p < 0.05, F-statistic = 9.04, D.W = 1.804) .There is a positive and non significant relationship between the roles played by government in assisting female entrepreneurs towards achieving wealth creation ( α = 0.029, p > 0.05), New ventures by female entrepreneurs had a negative and non-significant effect on environmental sustainability (α = -0.027, t-value = -0.242, R2 = 0.001, Adj R2 = -0.01, p > 0.05, F-statistic = 0.058, D.W = 1.743 and female entrepreneurs’ education had negative and non-significant impact on the economic development of South-Eastern Nigeria (α = -0.017, t-value = -1.02, R2 = 0.011, Adj R2 = -0.00, p > 0.05, F-statistic = 1.04, D.W = 1.764). The study concluded among other things that better knowledge about the economic importance of female’s entrepreneurship and their particular strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, is important to success of females’ entrepreneurship. The study recommends among others that Government should increase the participation of female in the labour force by ensuring the availability of affordable child care and equal treatment in the work place.