The impact of savings and credit initiatives on women’s employment in Tanzania

This study examines the impact of savings and credit initiatives in creating women’s self-employment in rural marginalized areas in Bukombe district, Geita region. It applies a probit model to study determinants of savings and credit initiative in creating women’s self-employment in rural areas. The results show that, in rural areas, women who have access to credits are more likely to be in self-employment compared to those who do not have access to credits. This implies that credits to women enhance self-employment creation in rural areas. Moreover, it was observed that women’s savings had no significant impact on women’s self-employment in rural areas. This indicates that rural women do not utilize their saving on creation of self-employment. The results further revealed that size of land owned by women is not among the factors that promote women self-employment in rural areas. Results show that as the size of land owned by women increases, the chance of women to be in self-employment decreases. Moreover, the findings revealed that as women give birth to baby boys, there is less probability for women to be in self-employment compared to wage work. Finally, the study revealed further that education level of women affects their self-employment in rural areas. Women with high education level have less chance to engage in work wage compared to self-employment. Therefore, future research needs to focus on financial and economic literacy of rural women who access credits for establishment of their activities. Other studies should be conducted to find out why rural women do not save their income in order to create self-employment.