An Assessment of the Mediating Effect of Entrepreneurial Skills on The Relationship Between Business Network Meetings as a Microfinance Bank Intervention and the Performance of Women-Owned Enterprises in North Eastern Nigeria

The study examined entrepreneurial skills as a mediator between business network meetings, a microfinance bank intervention, and the performance of women-owned enterprises in North Eastern Nigeria. It was conducted using a descriptive survey research design with a population of 1,262 women entrepreneurs who had received microfinance interventions across six states: Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Gombe, Adamawa, and Bauchi. Gombe State recorded the highest number of beneficiaries (456), while Bauchi had the lowest (13). A sample size of 395 respondents was determined using the Taro Yamane formula with a 30% attrition rate added, and proportional representation was achieved through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire based on a 5-point Likert scale adapted from Kabira (2022) and analyzed with SPSS through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed a moderate to high agreement on the influence of business network meetings, with a composite mean score of 3.88 and a standard deviation of 0.75. Regression analysis revealed a statistically significant but small positive effect of business network meetings on enterprise performance (R² = 0.280, B = 0.12, β = 0.10, t = 2.11, p = 0.035), with no autocorrelation in the residuals (Durbin-Watson = 1.934). Mediation analysis using the PROCESS Macro indicated that entrepreneurial skills partially mediated this relationship, with a total effect of 0.4396 (p < 0.001), a direct effect of 0.1883 (p = 0.0003), and an indirect effect of 0.2511 within a confidence interval of 0.1613 to 0.3504. A high t-statistic of 14.1219 further confirmed significance, underscoring the critical role of entrepreneurial skills as a mechanism through which business networking interventions improved the performance of women-owned enterprises in the region.