Level of poverty among the micro enterprise owners in homa-bay sub county,

Abstract

The level of poverty in Homa-Bay County stands at 77.9% against 52% in Kenya. This study sought to establish the level of poverty among the Micro Enterprise Owners in Homa-Bay Sub County, Kenya. The study was guided by resource based view of the firm and equity theories. The study adopted survey research design. The population of the study comprised 1200 MEOs in the study area, Homa-Bay Sub County. A sample size of 240 MEOs was arrived at through stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect the primary data while secondary data were obtained from the records of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaires using Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.6. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics namely means and standard deviations and presented in tables and figures. Findings revealed that both income and consumption which were the indicators of poverty had a low mean (µ= 2.3) and SD of 0.47 and 0.50 respectively implying that poverty level is high among the MEOs in Homa-Bay Sub couty. The study recommends that the MEOs should learn to save, use trade credit facilities wisely and plough back their ME profits to reduce level of poverty among them. The findings will be used by policy makers, academicians, micro-credit practitioners, donors and MEOs across the globe.