Abstract

This research studies the impact of microfinance services on the entrepreneurial success of users of such services who are mostly women of the lowest income categories. Three microfinance financial services namely, microcredit, micro-savings and micro-insurance have been identified through literature among other non -financial services. In this study, researcher has studied only the influence of financial services of microfinance on entrepreneurial success of women entrepreneurs. An empirical investigation is carried out among a sample of 464 women receiving microfinance services, selected using stratified random sampling technique. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire through face to face interviews. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) (version 21) is employed to test the relationships between these microfinance services and entrepreneurial success. The sample of this study captures only the women entrepreneurs from Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) registered with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The results have discovered that microcredit and micro-savings have a positive relationship with entrepreneurial success of women, while micro-insurance has not shown such a relationship. These findings can be helpful to the policy makers in developing the microfinance sector and microfinance institutions to design their service offers. The research identifies some important areas for future research as well.

Key words: Microfinance, microfinance services, microfinance institutions, entrepreneurial success.