Adoption of Microfinance in Entrepreneurship Development Amongst Rural Women in Vhembe District

Abstract

This chapter investigates a group of rural women in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa who adopted microfinance-based entrepreneurship for self-empowerment and poverty alleviation. The chapter is anchored on multiple theories of empowerment, social capital, gender and development (GAD), and women in development (WID). The chapter adds to the growing body of the women empowerment literature. This is a mixed methods chapter. Various instruments are also used to collect data. Amongst others, data were collected through face-to-face and telephonic interviews using (English-Tshivenda) cross-language open-ended questionnaire. In addition, data were also collected through key informant interviews (KIIs) and desktop approach. The concept of bricolage entrepreneurship based on social capital exploitation by the women entrepreneurs has been explained. This chapter established that women were capable of developing sustainable entrepreneur activities to empower themselves and to also fight poverty.