Many women-owned businesses continue to lose out on government tenders, despite the promise that 30 per cent of all tenders should be awarded to businesses led by women, youth or people living with disabilities.
A study carried out in Kenya identifies the barriers that women-led businesses face and reveals that data from state bodies may create a false impression that the women benefit more from the reserved tenders yet actual values are far less.
“Majority of women-led businesses do not qualify for registration and prequalification under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) because they operate informally and do not meet the requirements for the compliance with conditions for AGPO,” the study report, Towards Gender Balance: Understanding the Barriers and Solutions to Include Women-Led Businesses in East Africa (Kenya), says.
It was produced by The Institute of Social Accountability (TISA) in partnership with Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) and Open Contracting Partnership (OCP), with support of the IDRC.
The report seeks to improve the understanding of policies and practices that promote women-led businesses’ (WLBs) participation in the public sector procurement as well as policies and practices that exclude WLBs from public procurement.
Kenya’s AGPO targets 30 per cent of its procurement budget and simplifies application requirements for youth, women, and people with disabilities.
But the report notes women-led businesses in Kenya face various challenges which stop them from exploiting the full benefits of AGPO.
Although the data on registered business entities in Kenya is not disaggregated by sex of the ownership, the World Bank report says Kenya has 48 per cent of business owners being women, and only 7 per cent of them access formal credit.
The report suggests lack of access to credit and stringent requirements to access AGPO could be a hindrance.
The requirement is that the ownership must meet a threshold of 70 per cent by proportion of share ownership of respective businesses and the key signatories must equally be of each category.
“For example, if there are 10 people starting a private limited company, at least seven of them must be women and all the signatories be women to qualify for AGPO,” the report says.
Some of the women also decried sexualisation of tender and sexual harassment in delivery of tenders.
“Some WLB complained that they were on several occasioned faced with tough choices especially when some unethical officers or their proxies demand for sexual favours in exchange for tenders,” the report says.
The study also notes that many women may simply not be aware that these opportunities to do business with the government exist.
“Women in rural areas have limited access to information, burdened with care work (may not afford house helps or child carers), low interest in tenders, and less knowledgeable on AGPO process,” the report said.
Many of them also do not bid for tenders. The report says as much as the bids are affirmative action, women must compete with the youth and persons living with disability under the AGPO. This competitive nature of women eliminates them at the early stages of AGPO.
Those who end up winning receive low value tenders such as printing services, cleaning services, whose payment are never prioritised. Therefore, they would get low margins and therefore discouraging other women.
The study recommends mentorship for women led businesses. It says the procuring entities could identify some of the non-technical tenders for learning and experience building from time to time.
“Continual sensitisation and training of the public and especially WLBs on the importance of participating in the AGPO programme and capacity building for procuring entities to approach their work with a gender lens,” the study notes.
