Investigating Entrepreneurial Skills as a Mediator between Advisory Intervention Services of Microfinance Bank and Performance of Women-Owned Enterprises in North Eastern Nigeria

This study investigated the mediating role of entrepreneurial skills in the relationship between monitoring interventions by microfinance banks and the performance of women-owned enterprises in Northeastern Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was employed with a population of 1,262 women entrepreneurs who benefitted from microfinance interventions across six states: Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Gombe, Adamawa, and Bauchi. A sample of 395 respondents was determined using Taro Yamane’s formula with an additional 30% to account for attrition. Stratified random sampling ensured proportional representation of states and microfinance banks. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire designed on a 5-point Likert scale adapted from Kabira (2022) and analyzed using SPSS for both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that monitoring interventions had a significant positive effect on enterprise performance (R² = 0.317, β = 0.563, p = 0.001). Durbin-Watson statistics (1.934) confirmed the absence of autocorrelation. Mediation analysis through PROCESS Macro indicated full mediation, as the indirect effect of entrepreneurial skills (0.2718, CI: 0.1754–0.3722) was significant, while the direct effect (0.0843, p = 0.1697) was not. The overall effect was 0.3594 with a t-statistic of 12.8728. The study concluded that entrepreneurial skills transformed the impact of monitoring interventions into improved enterprise performance. It was recommended that microfinance institutions intensify entrepreneurial capacity-building programs alongside monitoring to ensure sustained growth and competitiveness of women-owned enterprises in the region.