A Dissertation Submitted in Partial/Fulfilment of the Requirements for Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration in Corporate Management (MBA-CM) of Mzumbe UniversityThe study described an assessment on challenges facing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in accessing finance in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The study assessed causative factors that fostering access to finance by SMEs from banks in Tanzania. Three independent variables were identified being limited awareness, limited collateral and limited formal planning. The study employed causal relationship approach by means of relationship testing between variables. Data were generated from GT Bank customers as SMEs from the sample of 100 respondents gathered through structured questionnaire. The collected data was processed using SPSS version 23.0 to generate relevant statistics to present primary data. The study used descriptive statistics to illustrate respondents profile in terms of age, gender and education level. Correlation and multiple regression analysis was used to illustrate the existing relationship of the study variables. Study results evident that all three independent variables namely limited formal planning, limited collaterals and limited awareness revealed positive relationship with significant effect on access to finance. This therefore implies that access to finance in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from banks is affected by limited formal planning, limited collaterals and limited awareness. Finally, the study findings suggest that government should formulate policies and directives that will foster formalization of enterprises in terms of keeping financial records to attract lending decisions by the banks. This may enable the enterprises to have finance access from banks.