Procedimientos para instalar un sistema de contabilidad

The study was conducted in Addis Ababa, the location for many international organizations and the seat of the diplomatic core of Africa, home to the headquarters of the African Union and the UN-ECA. The city is structured into ten sub-cities each with respective local government administration. According to the projection from the 1997 CSA data, the population of the city was 2,738,248, out of which the male population was 1,304,518 (47.6%) and the female population was 1,433,730 (52.4%). On average, the population growth is 2.1% and the dependency ratio was about 38% in 2001 (MoFED, 2017, p. 16) and this growth rate doubled in 2017 with an average growth rate of 4.8% (MoUDC, 2017, p. 37).

In Addis Ababa, the percentage of the economically active population, that is, the total population above 15 years old is 62.3% in 1996. The total unemployment rate in the city was 27.9%, out of which 38.3% were females and 18.4% were males. The labour force and employment in Addis Ababa was that 75% in the formal sector while the rest (25%) was in the informal sector. Major sectors that employ most of the labour force in the city were the service sector (73%) and industry (25.5%) and urban agriculture constituting 1.5%. The literacy rate of the male population is higher compared to the female

population. Male educational attainment in tertiary education is 36.2% and 28.86% for females (CSA, 1996, p. 59). After 18 years in 2014, the unemployment rate for females was 33.7%, out of the overall unemployment rate of 27.8% (IFC, 2014, p. 37). This situation was relatively unchanged in 2016, which was 33.2% (MoFED, 2017, p. 49). This chapter presents the research setting: namely the context of Ethiopia in general and Addis Ababa in particular. The presentation provides relevant information concerning administrative structure, population size, economic structure, development strategy and the poverty situation of the country as a setting to assess the status of MSEs and the participation of MSEs owners in terms of gender and other socio- economic variations. In regard to this, women-owned SMEs and access of these enterprises to financial sector services in the country are presented.

Out of the total 110,000,000 population, 50.5% are males and 49.5% are female at the country level. In contrast, in Addis Ababa, females are considerably higher than males. In the country, about 31 microfinance institutions have emerged in the last fifteen years and most of these MFIs are situated in Addis Ababa. However, the coverage of microfinance services to the overall population and the poor is 2% and 5% respectively at country level and relatively better in Addis Ababa. Based on the concentration of the MSEs, MFIs, the large unemployed population and the low female participation in the MSEs and MFIS, Addis Ababa was selected as the study location for field work and primary data collection

Regarding the justifications for the selection of the research site, Addis Ababa is the political and economic hub of the country. In relation to the current study, most MFIs operate as well as most of the MSEs are concentrated in Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa has the largest number of unemployed women and youth and poverty is also prevalent in the city. The population growth rate is higher than the country‘s average and rural- urban and urban-urban migration is a critical factor for expanding the unemployed population category. Addis Ababa is one of the reform cities in Ethiopia where MSMEs, urban beautification, urban job creation and related pro-poor policy interventions are being undertaken. According to IFC (2014) two-thirds of women who own MSEs face problems related to finance, working premises, sale outlets, skills and lack of access to non-financial services. Women, including the unemployed and those in the informal sector, face gender-related investment and enterprise formalization constraints in the city (IFC, 2014, p. 33). This made the women-owning MSEs as well as entrepreneurs that intend to engage in business and income generating activities very difficult to attain

better incomes, build assets and improve their well-being by expanding their decision- making powers and reducing the workload and burden they face because of poverty. As compared to the women population size, the unemployed women, women in the informal sector and women owning the MSEs, the concentration of the MFIs and MSEs in Addis Ababa, it is empirically interesting to understand why there are the gaps in finance and why the prospects of expanding MSEs is not utilized in Addis Ababa. Available research results, which were conducted in Addis Ababa, do not document comprehensive and substantive evidence. Available researches exclusively focus on diversity of the MSEs, the determinants of MSEs diversification, the contribution of MSEs in employment creation and income of the beneficiaries. As financial provision alone is not enough for redressing gender gaps, non-financial factors as one challenge of MSEs owned by women pushes the women in the city to disengage their MSEs or work in underperforming businesses and face challenges of achieving better business outcomes (growth and expansion) including household and individual well-being. As the result of continuing population growth and the demand for resources, even in the centre of the political and economic policy decision-making epicentre, the prospects of women owning business to access financial and non-financial services is of policy concern and the existing and dynamically changing gender gaps are continuously affecting these segment of enterprises.

Given these factors, almost all of these segments in the city are to compete in the available MFIs and MSEs opportunities in the short and medium terms, MSEs being the mainstay of the poor and women in the city. Selecting Addis Ababa as the study area was thus appropriate to show the impact of access to microfinance loans and related services and the implications that they had on the growth and expansion of the MSEs owned by women.

In general, the selection of Addis Ababa as a research site for this theme was justified because running enterprises requires financial and non-financial competencies during their start up, growth, and expansion. The study established evidence on basis of the arguments presented in this work. Applying appropriate methodology the growth and expansion of MSEs owned by women was one of the areas to be properly considered.

3.4. THE STUDY DESIGN AND APPROACH