The impact of hair braiding business on poverty alleviation in Tanzania Case of Female-owned Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Kinondoni District, Dar es Salaam

The present study was conducted to determine the impact of hair braiding business SMEs on poverty alleviation in Kinondoni district in Dar es Salaam. The specific objectives were to estimate the average daily earning of women full time engaged in the hair braiding business, estimate allocation of income earned through business on poverty alleviation interventions; and investigate the opportunities and challenges of hair braiding business. The study was descriptive, both quantitative and qualitative research and structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 230 hair braiders randomly selected from the study areas. SPSS was used to analyze data and χ2 was used to test mean differences in earnings. The result reveals that the average earnings for women engaged in the business was much high than the current country minimum monthly wages. The average daily earning of the women before engagement in hair braiding business was 9.4 times less than their daily earning after engagements. The per capital expenditure of households engaged in hair braiding business were higher than National and International Poverty Lines. The main opportunity and challenge of the business was the availability of good market and absence of conducive business premise respectively. The study concludes that the hair braiding business has contributed to poverty alleviation by raising living standards of women and their households. The study recommends that premises for hair braiding business; capacity building on women engaged in the business should be provided by the Municipal Authorities.