ABSTRACT

The study examined the performance and profitability of female-owned restaurants in Delta State, Nigeria. A simple random sampling procedure was used to select 216 restaurant owners using a structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cost and return and multiple regression analyses. The result showed that most of the respondents were educated and married, with a mean age of 39 years. The gross margin of N106,547 and net income of N95,123,5k  with BCR of 1.28 indicated that restaurant business was profitable in the study area. However, this amounted to a monthly income of about N7,927, which is less than the national minimum wage of  N18,000. The semi-log regression model was chosen as the lead equation based on the econometric, economic and statistical significance of the number of variables. The regression result showed that education, age of business, firm size, age of entrepreneur, initial capital, cost of raw materials, labour, energy, business location and experience influenced the profitability of restaurant enterprises at 1%, 5% and 10% probability levels respectively. The major constraints identified were incessant power outages from the public electricity company, too many debtors, difficulties in acquisition of capital and keeping of business capital which limited them in efficiently operating their enterprises.  Policies should be formulated to address the issue of incessant electricity outages because electricity plays a significant role in preservation of food, and comfort of customers.