Abstract:
The study examined factors affecting performance of micro enterprise owned by
entrepreneurs with disabilities. The objectives of the study were to identify the features of
micro enterprises owned by EWDs, to examine socio economic factors influencing sales
revenue of microenterprises owned by EWDs and to identify challenges EWDs face that affect
micro enterprise performance. The study adopted cross sectional research design whereby 66
respondents from three selected wards in Moshi Municipality Karanga, Bondeni and Mawenzi
were involved. Data collection methods involved the use of questionnaire and interview. Data
were analysed by using SPSS. Descriptive statistics and multiple lineal regression analysis
were used to present the data. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents were
street vending; use their personal serving as a source of capital and their businesses were
informal not registered. However, the findings revealed that Age, years of business operation,
entrepreneurial skills and education level an entrepreneur had positive coefficient with sales
revenue and statistically significant while marital status and initial capital had a negative
coefficient and not statistically significant. Moreover, the study revealed that challenges
affecting EWDs performance were Poor architectural building, and roads designed, lack of
finance, lack of business training, market for the products, contact (network) with outsiders,
discrimination, lack of network with administrative bodies, access to policy makers, interest
rate charged and over all legal and regulatory. The study recommends government, financial
institution, training institution, society and policy maker should provide environment that will
accommodate EWDs and eventually minimize on limitations.
