1Amewuda Abraham | 2David Ackah (PhD)
1St. Johns Grammar School | 2Center for Excellent Training & Consultancy
Email: dashdollar2004@yahoo.com | drackah@ipmp.edu.gh
Abstract
Majority of SMEs are female-owned businesses, which more often than not are home-based compared to those owned by males; they are operated from home and are mostly not considered in official statistics. This clearly affects their chances of gaining access to financing schemes, since such programmes are designed without sufficient consideration of the needs of businesses owned by females. These female entrepreneurs often get the impression that they are not capable of taking advantage of these credit schemes, because the administrative costs associated with the schemes often outweigh the benefits. Prior empirical studies in Ghana have shown that female-owned SMEs often have difficulty accessing finance. Females are mostly involved in sole-proprietorship businesses which are mainly microenterprises and as such may lack the necessary collateral to qualify for loans. Measures of enterprise efficiency vary greatly both within and across industries. Firm size may be associated with some other factors that are correlated with efficiency, such as managerial skill and technology, and the effects of the policy environment. Most studies in developing countries indicate that the smallest firms are the least efficient, and there is some evidence that both small and large firms are relatively inefficient compared to medium-scale enterprises. It is often argued that SMEs are more innovative than larger firms. Many small firms bring innovations to the market place, but the contribution of innovations to productivity often takes time, and larger firms may have more resources to adopt and implement them.
Keywords: Tax Theory, Public Financial Administration, Economic management, Sustainability of SMEs, Development Economics, Challenges Facing the Growth of SMEs