Female entrepreneurship plays an important role in economic development and in women’s integration into the labour market due to its ability to generate employment. There is still a gap in studies on women’s entrepreneurial skills in Africa. Therefore, the study aims to investigate women’s principal entrepreneurial skills in the context of female entrepreneurship in Mozambique.
To fulfil this aim, a qualitative and exploratory approach was adopted, with the selection of participating women being based on convenience. The data-collecting technique was semi-structured interviews applied to 17 Mozambican businesswomen who own established businesses and have family responsibilities.
Based on content analysis of the interviews and using NVivo 14 software, they identified three sets of “entrepreneurship factors”: level of study, professional experience and personal characteristics. The results also revealed that the absence of support institutions and free training centres is one of the biggest barriers to female entrepreneurship in Mozambique. Empirical evidence indicated that the lack of or limited, educational opportunities, whether formal schooling or not, is a contributing factor. Little professional training in the area of business is one of the biggest challenges faced by female Mozambican entrepreneurs, impacting their businesses’ performance negatively.
The empirical evidence provides some implications for the community and professionals, especially female African entrepreneurs. Certain mechanisms can be used to mitigate the impacts of obstacles and barriers faced by female entrepreneurs in the creation, survival and good performance and expansion of their businesses.
Based on the literature and empirical evidence of this study, a practical framework is proposed. This synthesises the entrepreneurial and motivational skills of women entrepreneurs with regard to their education, professional experience and personal characteristics.
