Poor access to finance for businesswomen in Ghana identified as driver of gender gap in business performance

Female entrepreneurs in the developing world are severely underperforming. This is the focus of a recent PEGNet Policy Brief “Africa’s Female Entrepreneurs – Towards Funding Success” written by Aoife Hanley from the Kiel Institute and three members of the SEZ project team, Charles Ackah, Holger Görg and Cecília Hornok. The authors examine the scale and possible drivers of the gender gap in productivity and export success among Ghanaian micro, small and medium enterprises. Of several different business constraints (such as taxation, bribery, or difficulties accessing markets), it is limited access to finance that is most strongly related to the female underperformance. The policy brief concludes with some recommendations for targeted support to women entrepreneurs. 

Link to the publication.