Female Entrepreneurship in Africa

Abstract

This chapter explores how female entrepreneurship is a growing phenomenon in Africa. Particularly, the chapter critically examines the use of the instrument of rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) in as far as it has influenced business growth and social mobility across the region. The implications are that, largely, it is an instrument that gives agency towards achieving gender parity at business and household levels, respectively. In trying to answer pertinent questions, the study engages country-based case studies. The countries used include Botswana, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Cameroon. These have been chosen because of their differential demographic, political economies, ideological, and religious foundations. Some have experienced serious and tectonic macro-economic challenges which may have worked to cement or to destroy efforts in building female entrepreneurship let alone the utility of ROSCAs as a tool towards business stability and wealth building.