Micro-Scale Industrial Activities

Even though the district is a predominantly agrarian economy, there is an amount of micro-scale industrial activities, which people engage in so as to aid and promote their general life status.

Gender in micro-industry

These activities are concentrated in shea-butter extraction. This industry in the district is predominantly female. Their male counterparts tend to be in bicycle repair and blacksmithing.

Lack of registration

Majority of these businesses were however found not to have been registered. Several reasons were given by the entrepreneurs. The two major reasons were first that they, the entrepreneurs had not had adequate profits so they felt the need not register their businesses and secondly that they were simply ignorant about registering their businesses.

Source of Start-Up Capital

Generally all entrepreneurs provide their own initial investment capital.  Majority of nearly 70% of respondents interviewed in October 2000 indicated that the initial investment capital for their business came from their own resources.  Another 23% said they raised their initial capital from friends or relatives whilst others depend on moneylenders.  Only a negligible number of entrepreneurs obtained any credit from any kind of formal financial institution.

Mode Of Production

Indications are that most entrepreneurs depend solely on the primitive mode of production.  Subsequently it became clear that as many as 94.7% of businesses were run manually whereas a very small percentage of 5.3 use machines.

Problems faced in micro-industry

The major problem identified if first that of inadequate finance in starting up and sustaining their businesses, secondly in the seasonality of raw materials for their industry. Finally the inaccessibility of roads in the district also turned out to be a major problem