Abstract
Purpose of the study: The activities of women represent an untapped source of economic growth in any developing economy, and entrepreneurship is one way of using that vast pool of human resources as intermediaries for wealth creation. For this reason, the strong linkage between financial sector services and women entrepreneurship has continued to generate tremendous interest among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders both at the national and international levels. The primary goal remains how to deepen financial inclusion of women to enhance their participation in entrepreneurship activities. Methodology: The study thus examines the influence of financial support services on the performance of women entrepreneurs in Jos, Plateau state. The study adopted a descriptive research design and applied multiple regression techniques for empirical analysis. Findings: Findings from the analysis revealed that financial credit awareness has a positive and significant impact on the growth of women entrepreneurs in Jos metropolis. This is basically because most women entrepreneurs have received invaluable business information from the financial sector, which has gone a long way to impact positively on the development of their business in Plateau state. Similarly, access to credit had no significant influence on the growth of women entrepreneurs in Jos metropolis. Lack of collateral, inadequate income statement, and high interest charged on loans made access to credit difficult for women entrepreneurs residing in Jos metropolis, and thus, it has stagnated their business growth. In addition, financial guarantor has an insignificant impact on the growth of women entrepreneurs. Application: Based on these findings, financial institutions should strive to reduce the stringent conditions attached to loan guarantors to ensure easy accessibility of credit by women entrepreneurs to realize a significant impact on their entrepreneurial contribution to the productivity in the state. Novelty/Originality: There is need for the government to develop a policy that will enhance credit assurance services and improve financial information infrastructure for financial accessibility of women-owned businesses in Nigeria