Africa’s businesswomen – underfunded or underperforming?

Charles Ackah, Holger Görg, Aoife Hanley and Cecília Hornok
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Charles Ackah: University of Ghana - ISSER
Holger Görg: Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Small Business Economics, 2024, vol. 62, issue 3, No 10, 1074 pages

Abstract: Abstract While the recent success of Africa’s ‘Lionesses’ – successful female entrepreneurs – is internationally celebrated, less is known about how liquidity can fuel the success of the ‘Lionesses’ and other businesswomen. Using information from a panel of over 800 male- and female-owned businesses in Ghana (ISSER-IGC survey), we capture a measure of underfunding, in addition to data on supplier credit, equity and other finance sources. Our regressions reveal a female-to-male productivity gap of between − 11 and − 19 per cent, values similar to estimates for other African countries. However, when financial constraints are taken into account, the gender performance gap disappears. Accordingly, female business owners who indicate that funding is not a problem are associated with higher productivity than males, all things equal. In a finding new to the literature, our regressions reveal the importance of supplier credit for Africa’s businesswomen.

Keywords: Female-owned businesses; Liquidity; Productivity; Supplier credit; Africa; Ghana (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 J16 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Africa's businesswomen – underfunded or underperforming? (2023)
Working Paper: Africa's businesswomen - Underfunded or underperforming? (2023)
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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-023-00792-0

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