Perceptions of financial sources among women entrepreneurs in Tanzania

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how women entrepreneurs in Tanzania assess their accessibility to different external financial sources. The aim is further to discuss financial preferences among this group of entrepreneurs. Findings: – Overall, the empirical results provide support for the hypothesis that the sampled women entrepreneurs perceive semi-formal capital, such as loans from MFIs, SACCOS, ROSCAS and VICOBA, as the most accessible external capital. Governmental subsidies are ranked second, followed by informal capital, such as loans from family, friends and investors. As expected, loans from formal banks are ranked as the least accessible financing alternative. However, there are strong indications that the entrepreneurs in our study, if given a choice, would prefer external capital from formal sources, rather than semi-formal or informal capital.