THE ROLE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN YENAGOA, BAYELSA STATE
This paper examined the influence of women entrepreneurship and economic development in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. The Paper showed a positive relationship between entrepreneurship and economic development. Women participation in entrepreneurship has also gained some attention in scholarly discuss. Emphasis has also been raised on the issue of low support for women to participate in entrepreneurship which is another basis for economic development. The paper uses a cross-sectional-survey research design method for the study and the questionnaire was used as the survey instrument. In order to achieve the aim of the research study, a sample size of one hundred and fourteen women (114) was used for the study. The data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for analyzing the research questions, from the results it was revealed that there is a positive relationship between women skills acquisition, women access to finance, and women empowerment on economic development, it was concluded that skill acquisition stimulate innovation, access to finance aid start-up and sustained business development and empowering women enables capacity building. Based on this it was recommended among others that Skill acquisition is one of the bedrock of economic development, therefore, government and well-meaning individuals should provide the enabling environment for more women to acquire skills.
Key Words: Role of Women, Entrepreneur, Economic Development
