Title: Loan delinquency among small business owners in Ghana: the importance of gender to the lending process

Authors: Jocelyn D. Evans, Evelyn Winston

Addresses: School of Business and Economics, Charleston, South Carolina, 29424–0001, USA. ' Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, USA

Abstract: The article identifies systematic differences in commercial lending default rates and payment delinquency between firms that are operated by women and men in Ghana. Logistic and Tobit analyses that measure the incidence of loan default and months in arrears are estimated for a sample of 2039 entrepreneurial firms, of which 31% are female owned. The results indicate that single college educated women manage their loan accounts more prudently than both men in general and married women. Other opportunities and challenges faced by women business owners in Ghana are discussed.

Keywords: Africa; women entrepreneurs; financial institutions; small business owners; Ghana; commercial lending; default rates; payment delinquency; female entrepreneurs; gender; loan default; entrepreneurship.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2008.017306

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2008 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.318 - 336

Published online: 24 Feb 2008 *

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