ANALYSIS OF ISSUES AND CHALLENGES AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS IN ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.

Micro‑entrepreneurship contributes significantly to employment, poverty alleviation, and national development in emerging economies such as Nigeria. Women predominate within this segment, particularly within micro and informal sectors. However, female micro‑entrepreneurs often experience disproportionately lower performance outcomes compared to their male counterparts due to structural and gendered constraints. Understanding the multifaceted challenges facing women is critical for enhancing enterprise sustainability and economic growth in Nigeria. However, the socio-economic contributions of these entrepreneurs have not been adequately captured, especially in Nigeria. Hence, female micro-entrepreneurs have not been fully utilised in terms of their economic potential. This study highlights the key issues and challenges that are restraining the performance of female micro-entrepreneurs in Adamawa State. Their demographic statistics were obtained from a purposive sample of 100 female micro-entrepreneurs from the three senatorial districts of Adamawa State using a structured questionnaire. Relevant extant literature was also used to complement the data acquired. The survey data were analysed using simple descriptive statistics in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The hypothesis was evaluated using ANOVA, yielding an F-statistic at the 0.05 level of significance. The computation for the hypothesis reveals that the F-Cal. (2.97) is less than the F-Tab. (3.8) at the 0.05 level of significance, with degrees of freedom k-1 = 2-1 = 1 and n-k = 200-2 = 198. Therefore, the computed value is less than the tabulated value; the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate hypothesis accepted, showing that female micro-entrepreneurs in Adamawa State face some difficulties. We therefore recommend that the government at all the three tiers, should encourage female micro-entrepreneurs through gender-specific and women-friendly support to make their contributions more substantive.