Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Over the years, Small and Medium Enterprises ( SMEs) have been vital
economic development agents. Despite their dominant share in the business
industry, Small and Medium Enterprises worldwide are hampered by
constrained growth. Access to finance has been identified as a dominant
constraint facing SMEs. In Ghana, governments at a different level have put
up many support programs to promote and sustain their development.
However, Despites and all these supports, Micro and small scale enterprises
(SMEs) in Ghana have not performed creditably well. This study intends to
examine the precursors or antecedents of access to finance and the impact of
access to finance on the growth of SMEs in Sissala East Municipality, Ghana.
The study's goal was to examine the impact of access to finance on the growth
of SMEs in the Sissala East Municipality. The study adopted the positivist
philosophy. The study adopted a quantitative research approach to analysing
the primary data that was collected. The study adopted the explanatory design
of the quantitative approach. This study adopted the census approach, where
every unit in a population is selected. A structured questionnaire was used for
the primary data collection. The data gathered were cleansed, coded and
inputted into SPSS 26.0 version for analysis. The need for collateral before
getting credit, lack of understanding of business funding alternatives, and
availability of business support services were the primary factors influencing
or driving loan accessibility among SMEs. It was found that access to
financial credit positively affects SMEs productivity. According to the
findings, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) should establish a special rate for SMEs
lower than the general interest rate on loans.
