SME Micro-Financing and Business Growth in Rural Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the critical nature of SMEs to the prosperity of less developed countries, evidence has shown that small businesses in Nigeria have not made a significant contribution to the nation's economic growth and development due to finance-related issues. This chapter, identifies the social determinants of microfinance loan accessibility; examines SME owner satisfaction with existing microfinance institutions loan requirements; investigates the relationship between microfinance and perceived business growth; and documents the challenges facing rural SME owners in accessing business loans in microfinance banks. By adopting non-probability sampling techniques, 262 identical questionnaires and 21 in-depth interviews were used to compile data from the study subjects. The data was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. The findings of this chapter informs the reader about the direction for further research into interventionist programmes for SMEs in Nigeria.