Rural Electrification and Profitability among Rural Women - Owned Microenterprises in Nigeria

Abstract

In most developing countries, higher numbers of women depend on microenterprise for survival, and access to electricity supply is considered to be vital to the operations of microenterprise businesses. Despite the significance of rural electrification, microenterprises are still battling with a lack of quality and stable electricity supply. To this end, this study analyzed the effect of grid electricity supply on the profitability of microenterprise among rural women. Primary data were used for this study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Probit model, and the ordinary least square (OLS) method. The result shows that hairdressing (16.8%) is the most common form of businesses followed by tailoring (14.1%), oil palm processing (12.4%), grain milling (7.9%), traditional birth attendants and retail shop (7.1%). Also, the result reveals that age, years of schooling, connection charge, enterprise share of electricity bill with household, and duration of power outage supported the adoption of electricity service among microenterprise owners. The study further shows that the billing method of electricity supply negatively affects the profitability of microenterprise. On the other hand, grid electricity adoption, years spent in business, duration of power supply, and expenditure on alternative sources of energy significantly have a positive impact on the profitability of microenterprise. The study, therefore, recommends that the Government should intensify action in providing rural communities with reliable and affordable electricity services, which is one of the indispensable tools in microenterprises establishment, expansion, and performance.