Title: Muslim women and entrepreneurship in Nigeria: meaning and challenges

Authors: Aishatu Usman Muhammad; Habib Abdulkarim

Addresses: Department of Accounting, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Gombe State University, Gombe State, Nigeria ' Department of Accounting, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Gombe State University, Gombe State, Nigeria

Abstract: The role of women in most societies/religion is misunderstood by many, especially in Islamic settings. The Muslim woman is faced with economic challenges. She is denied her rights as a Muslimah. Adopting the survey methodology, this paper attempts to review empirical cases on the role of a Muslim woman entrepreneur, and the challenges facing Muslim women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, where structured questionnaires were administered to 120 randomly selected Muslim women entrepreneurs around some selected states in Nigeria. We find that the Muslim women entrepreneurs in Nigeria are faced with challenges of inadequate funding, lack of support from spouse/family, conflict of roles, cultural and societal discrimination. It is recommended that women entrepreneurs in Nigeria should register their businesses so as to enable them have easier access to financial facilities. It is also recommended that they harmonise family members with their business objectives and use ICT to ease their transactions.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; Muslim women; Nigeria; women entrepreneurs; female entrepreneurs; entrepreneurial challenges; role of women; Islam; inadequate funding; lack of support; conflict of roles; cultural discrimination; societal discrimination.

DOI: 10.1504/AJAAF.2015.073478

African Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, 2015 Vol.4 No.3, pp.232 - 245

Received: 22 Aug 2015
Accepted: 25 Aug 2015

Published online: 09 Dec 2015 *

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