Effects of Access to Finance and Business Mentorship on Sales Growth of SMEs in Gboko Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effects of access to finance and mentorship on sales growth of SMEs in Gboko metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria. The study employed a survey design and used a structured questionnaire (Four Likert Scale) designed by the researcher to gather data. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. A reliability (Cronbach Alpha) estimate of 0.941 was obtained for the questionnaire. With the aid of Taro-Yamane formula, two hundred and forty-eight (248) SME Managers operating in different sectoral activities were sampled from 650 registered SMEs in Gboko metropolis. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation, while four hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that access to finance and business mentorship has a significant effect on sales growth of SMEs in Gboko metropolis of Benue State. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at a 0.05 level of significance. The study found that all the p-values were less than 0.05, indicating that all the variables were statistically significant in affecting sales growth of SMEs in Gboko metropolis, Benue State. The study concluded that all the variables have a significant effect on sales growth of SMEs in Gboko metropolis of Benue State. The study suggests, among others, that government should make available soft loans for SMEs and hence facilitate productive dialogue with private sector investors to remove barriers to doing business by deploying approaches that promote market access across the country.