Access to Micro Enterprise Financing in Nigeria

2. Literature Review

The literature suggests that MEs are not able to access the same kind of finance often available to large businesses. For instance, research carried out by Carpenter and Petersen (2002) in the US, examined more than 1,600 micro and small manufacturing firms and found that growth of these firms appeared to be constrained by lack of (internal) finance. The literature also clearly suggests a strong link between the availability of finance and enterprise growth, leading to the notion of a ‘finance gap’ which implies that “there may be major ‘barriers’ preventing an owner-manager’s access to equity” (Hutchinson, 1995, p.231).