Problems faced by young women when starting a business in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

The importance of entrepreneurship and small business in economic growth has become globally recognised as a means to develop an economy sustainably. The aim of this study was to identify problems faced by young women when starting a business in Kinshasa; in other words, factors that discourage young Congolese women from becoming entrepreneurial and engaging in small business activities, with regard to the obstacles to small business growth prospects in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Young Congolese women should not only be supported to engage in entrepreneurship, but embarking on business ventures should be made easier, devoid of challenges for their participation in the country’s development. The study was quantitative in nature. The target population included active and non-active young women and youth in Kinshasa. The data collected from the respondents came from a total of 130 fully completed questionnaires captured and analysed with IBM SPSS® Statistics software 2019 version, thus producing descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies, means and standard deviations. The findings showed that not all young Congolese women from Kinshasa were opposed to pursuing a career in entrepreneurship; rather it was the lack of business awareness and inaccessibility of business support structures that discouraged the intention to pursue an entrepreneurial activity. It was also found that young Congolese women experienced more challenges in sourcing start-up capital, including difficulty in obtaining loans, gender discrimination, early marriage, high taxes, lack of basic education and health systems, and lack of business information and technology skills. Opportunities to thrive in business were marginal or non-existent, further exacerbated by the lack of family and government support. Interestingly though, these challenges did not appear to have a strong negative impact on the enthusiasm and desire of these young women to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Overall, on the basis of the challenges revealed, recommendations to improve the current situation were made. An important implication of this study rests on the need for the government, acting as the crucial pillar for socioeconomic development goals, to partner with several stakeholders, including Congolese women, established businesses and the larger society to work together in addressing these challenges. Acknowledging and understanding the problems faced by any country or its population with regard to opening a business is important, as the outcomes could teach the youth how to start and run a long-term business efficiently.