Mkwizu, Kezia H.; Swai, Tobias A.; Monametsi, Gladness L.
Description:
This paper examines the relationship between social capital on access to financial services for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector. The study area is Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A cross-sectional design was used and surveyed semi-structured questionnaire to collect data from respondents using convenience sampling. A total of 81 completed questionnaires were subjected to descriptive statistics and ANOVA analysis. The descriptive results for social capital reveal that majority of respondents regularly talk with other business owners (90.1%), meet frequently with family and friends to talk about business (90.1%), and belong to a religious group (93.8%); while for access to financial services the results show that majority of respondents (82.7%) strongly agree that friends and family provide extra capital when needed. Among the inferential statistics findings on the relationship between social capital and access to financial services indicated that regularly talks with other business owners is statistically significantly to access to grants (p = 0.003), regularly talks with other business owners is statistically significantly to friends and family provide extra capital when needed (p = 0.035), meeting frequently with family and friends to talk about business is statistically significantly to access to grants (p = 0.012), having strong ties with people or entities in business with is statistically significantly to access to grants (p
= 0.008), and having strong ties with fellow SMEs is statistically significantly to access to grants (p =0.012), fellow SMEs have strong ties with one another is statistically significantly to access grants (p = 0.025), belonging to a football club is statistically significantly to access to grants (p = 0.000), belonging to a Golf Club is statistically significantly to friends and family provide extra capital when needed (p = 0.001), and belonging to a community social group is statistically significantly to friends and family provide extra capital when needed (p= 0.004). This paper adds knowledge to the issue of the relationship of social capital and access to financial services for SMEs in the manufacturing sector in Tanzania. Future studies can explore financial cultures by SMEs and access to financial services in the manufacturing sector.