Dissertation Submitted to Mzumbe University in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for Award of the Degree of Master Business Administration in Cooperate Management (MBA-CM) of Mzumbe University
The aim of conducting this study was to investigate how access to finance by SMEs impacts the performance of these establishments. Specifically, the study ought to identify challenges facing SMEs in accessing finance from service providers and analyse the relationship between access to finance and SMEs performance.
Data were collected from a total of 76 respondents; managers/owners of SMEs to explore the relationship between access to finance and performance of these organizations in the market place. Moreover, the same number of respondents was questioned to find answers on the perception of challenges facing SMEs in the whole process of accessing finances from commercial banks. A well-structured close-ended questionnaire was designed for the respondents to tick from a five point likert scale.
Data were further analysed using multiple regression model stepwise to see the contribution of each variable including access to finance on performance of SMEs.
The findings reveal that access to finance contribute largely on the performance of small and medium sized organizations but needs to be combined with other factors such as marketing and productions efficiency. On the other hand lack of customer knowledge, lack of innovation on the products to SMEs, collateral and security issues as well as cash flow issues are four important factors/challenges facing small and medium sized entrepreneurs in Tanzania in the whole process of accessing loans from commercial banks as these are the performance indicators used by banks in evaluating credit worthiness for their customers