Financial Accessibility And Small And Medium Scale Enterprises Development In South-East, Nigeria
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate financial accessibility and small and medium scale enterprises development in South-East, Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to determine the relationship between collateral requirement, and mentoring, loan procedure and coaching, asset tangibility and technological innovation of Small and medium scales enterprises development in South- East, Nigeria. Relevant theoretical and empirical literature were reviewed. This study was anchored on credit access theory. Correlational research design was adopted in this study. The study was carried in South-South. The population of this study comprises 9731 registered Small and Medium Scale enterprises business in South-East, Nigeria. The statistical formula devised by Cochran was employed to determine the sample size of 384. The instrument used in this research was questionnaire. Face and content validity was adopted. Test re-test and Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the instruments. The study employed simple percentages for analyzing research questions and Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient was used in testing the hypotheses. The result of showed that collateral requirement had a significant negative relationship with mentoring of Small and Medium Scale enterprises in South- East, Nigeria; Loan procedure had a significant positive relationship with coaching of Small and Medium scales enterprises in South- East, Nigeria; Asset tangibility had a significant associate with technological innovation of Small and medium scales enterprises in South- East, Nigeria. The study concluded that financial accessibility had a positive significant relationship with Small and medium scales enterprises development in South- East, Nigeria The study recommended among others, that collateral demanded by financial institutions before giving out loan to Small and medium scales enterprises should be flexible and not compulsory to ensure that such facilities are being well utilized.
