Abstract:
The relationship between Enterprise unique characteristics and access to short
term finance from formal financial institutions was examined in this study. The
secondary data set from the 2013 Enterprises Survey conducted by the World
Bank on selected enterprises across the whole Ghana was employed for the study.
The study adopted a qualitative analysis such as descriptive statistics, percentages
and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to address the stated objectives. The
outcomes suggested that enterprise unique features such as size, age and business
location are important variables in explaining enterprises access to finance in
Ghana. That is access to finance improves as firm size increase suggesting that
micro and small enterprises can be said to be more constrained in accessing bank
loans than their counterparts medium and large enterprises. Also, older enterprises
were found to have moderate perception of access to finance as a major obstacle
as compared to younger enterprises. Enterprises operating in Accra and other
business centres were found be more constrained than other operation outside
such locations. The study recommend that the concentration on supports for
micro and small enterprises must continue but must expand alongside given loans
to include technical advice on how to overcome the fear of accepting the
responsibility of taking a loan. Also, major supporting policies from government
agencies and NGOs must consider other unique characteristics such as age and
business location of enterprises. For example, Younger enterprises can be given
support irrespective of size since they are equally financially constrained.
