Islamic Finance as an Alternative Source of Funding for Women Entrepreneurs in Sokoto State, Nigeria

Women entrepreneurship development has become essential to any economy which strives to achieve growth and development, therefore financing for this sector has as well become crucial in order to achieve the above stated objective. However in the case where the financing strategies has not produce positive outcome, then there is need for an alternative means of finance for the above stated sector. This study therefore attempts to examine the potential of Islamic finance as an alternative source of funding for women entrepreneurs in Sokoto. This paper is based largely on academic research currently undertaken by the researcher on women entrepreneurs in Sokoto state of Nigeria. This paper is a conceptual in nature in which analytical method was employed based on previous literatures to explain the potentials and importance of Islamic finance to the women entrepreneur’s business performance in Sokoto state. The finding shows that finance remains a major impediment to women entrepreneur’s business performance in Sokoto state. the study also find out that the current mode of financing for business women in Sokoto such as personal savings ,family and friends , commercial banks , government , has not been able to produce positive results in terms of their business performances, therefore there is a need for an alternative source of founding. The study conclude that Islamic finance has a role to play in financing women entrepreneurs in Sokoto through its micro finance products such as Mudarabah, Musharakah, Murabahah, Ijarah, Wakalah etc. The study also suggests that Islamic banks in Nigeria should take advantage of this Niche area of women entrepreneurs and explore the opportunities untapped.