Policy Failure in West African Women Entrepreneurship: A Case of Nigeria and Ghana

With the rate of women entrepreneurship in Africa substantially higher than other parts of the world, it is imperative to understand why these entrepreneurs are currently assessed by World Bank to be at the lower band of economic success in comparison to men. The literature on women entrepreneurship has suggested women entrepreneurs are important for combating poverty particularly in Global South economies through their contribution to job creation and diversity of entrepreneurship in terms of products, processes and targeted markets. However, challenges and policy failures have been highlighted to be instrumental to the lower economic position of these women entrepreneurs. We adopt a dual theoretical perspective which include the post-colonial theory and social feminist theory, and we explicitly explore the existing entrepreneurial policies in west Africa and uncover any biases. This study thus seeks to investigate how policy failures have affected women entrepreneurs in West Africa in more ways than their male counterparts considering their unique experiences. This study focuses on two neighbouring English-speaking countries in West Africa (Nigeria and Ghana). Through an in-depth content analysis, three key themes are revealed, and they include: unequal access to resources, implementation gap and informality. This study thus recommends initiatives that can address the structural and institutional challenges besetting this group of entrepreneurs in these countries.