Identifying the entrepreneurial competence of micro clients in MFI’s.A case study of uniCredit Ghana

Various researchers have indicated that in general, entrepreneurial competencies are positively related to entrepreneurial success (Baron & Markman, 2003; Baum & Locke, 2004; Baum et al, 2001; Chandler & Jansen, 1992; Ucbasaran et al, 2008). Also in case of developing countries, it is indicated that improved entrepreneurial behaviour, based on entrepreneurship training, will have a positive effect on the performance of microcredit clients (Edgcom, 2002; Cook et al, 2001; Dumas, 2001; Gray et al, 2011; Karlan et al, 2006; Ekpe et al, 2010). Yet entrepreneurial training is not given much attention in MFI’s in developing countries. This is not only because most MFI’s do not consider entrepreneurial training as their core activity. More important, it is not clear from the literature which particular entrepreneurial competencies will have a positive impact on business performance of micro credit clients on the one hand, and their loan repayment on the other. This research therefore intends to find out which competencies are relevant for MFI clients’ business development and loan repayments in developing countries. The research question of this paper is: What are the main competencies that drives the performance of MFI clients and ultimately the performance of the MFI’s. In order to identify these entrepreneurial competencies, we developed a three step approach. First, we identified a set of entrepreneurial competencies MFI clients in developing countries require for higher performance, based on an extensive literature review (Smith and Perks (2006); Smart Force (2002); Van Dyke et al. (2001); Mano et al. (2011); Edgcomb (2002); Karlan and Valdivia (2011) and others. Secondly, a preliminary survey is conducted with 50 clients of uniCredit, a micro finance institution in Ghana. For this preliminary survey, 25 clients with good loan repayment and business performance and 25 clients with poor business performance and loan repayment are selected. The results provide information about the set of competencies MFI clients require in order to be successful. Thirdly focus group discussions with 20 clients will be done in order to describe and analyse the required set of competencies, which enables us to operationalize and establish the identified competencies in entrepreneurship training programs. The results obtained from the focus group discussions will be analysed with Atlas-ti, whiles the quantitative results gathered from the questionnaires will be analysed using ANOVA.