TY - JOUR
T1 - Financing the growth of SMEs in Africa
T2 - What are the contraints to SME financing within ECOWAS?
AU - Quartey, Peter
AU - Turkson, Ebo
AU - Abor, Joshua Y.
AU - Iddrisu, Abdul Malik
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Africagrowth Institute
PY - 2017/6
Y1 - 2017/6
N2 - This study attempts to provide some understanding about SMEs’ access to finance within the West African sub-region with particular interest in establishing whether there are similarities and/or differences in the determinants of SMEs access to finance across countries in SSA. For robustness sake, we developed both subjective and objective measures of access to finance. Using data from World Bank's Enterprise Survey data set, we examine the determinants of access to finance both at the sub-regional level and at the country-level. We found that, generally, at the sub-regional level, access to finance is strongly determined by factors such as firm size, ownership, strength of legal rights, and depth of credit information, firm's export orientation and the experience of the top manager. However, we found important differences in the correlates of firms’ access to finance at the country level. The findings of this study therefore have important implications for policy.
AB - This study attempts to provide some understanding about SMEs’ access to finance within the West African sub-region with particular interest in establishing whether there are similarities and/or differences in the determinants of SMEs access to finance across countries in SSA. For robustness sake, we developed both subjective and objective measures of access to finance. Using data from World Bank's Enterprise Survey data set, we examine the determinants of access to finance both at the sub-regional level and at the country-level. We found that, generally, at the sub-regional level, access to finance is strongly determined by factors such as firm size, ownership, strength of legal rights, and depth of credit information, firm's export orientation and the experience of the top manager. However, we found important differences in the correlates of firms’ access to finance at the country level. The findings of this study therefore have important implications for policy.
KW - Africa
KW - Constraints
KW - ECOWAS
KW - Finance
KW - Growth
KW - SMEs
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016637029&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.rdf.2017.03.001
DO - 10.1016/j.rdf.2017.03.001
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85016637029
SN - 1879-9337
VL - 7
SP - 18
EP - 28
JO - Review of Development Finance
JF - Review of Development Finance
IS - 1
ER -