Owner characteristics and access to bank financing: Perceptual evidence from SMEs in North Central Nigeria
Loading...
Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Timisoara Journal of Economics and Business
Abstract
The study examines the influence of owner specific factors
on access to bank financing among SMEs in North Central
Nigeria. Self-administered questionnaires were employed
for data collection from the sampled SME
owners/managers in the study area. A sample of 280
SMEs was drawn from the population of 1030 SMEs.
Logistic regression was used in analyzing the data. The
study found that gender, personal networking and
personal relationship with the bank, which are significant
at 0.05, 0.1 and 0.1 respectively, are the owner
characteristics influencing SMEs’ financial access,
whereas the owner’s age, education, experience, financial
literacy and personal wealth do not have significant
influence on SMEs’ access to bank financing in the region.
The study concluded that while all the identified owner’s
attributes are complementarily important in financial
access, banks are more gender biased, value personal
relationship and networking ability of firm owners. The
study therefore, recommended among others, the need for
SME owners to establish and maintain more improved
relationships with their banks and form strong linkages
with relevant stakeholders in the external environment for
better resource exchange including financial access.