Effect of Financial Inclusion on Entrepreneurial Growth of the MSMEs in Gombe State

Abstract

T he paper was an attempt to examine the effect of nancial inclusion on the entrepreneurial growth of MSMEs in Gombe State. The survey research design was adopted and the population of this study is the Five Hundred and Thirty-Nine Thousand, One Hundred and Nine (539,109) Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Gombe State as reported by SMEDAN in 2017. The sample size as estimated using Taro Yamane's formula is 400 respondents. The method of data analysis adopted in this paper is descriptive analysis and the expected mean of 1, 2, and 3 is 2.0 for this study; a mean rating of 2.0 or above was regarded as signicant while a mean rating less than 2.0 was regarded as insignicant. The ndings revealed that the level number of bank branches in my area has helped my business activities of the MSMEs in Gombe State and the level of bank agent banking (POS, ATM) has helped my business activities of the MSMEs in Gombe State. However, the level of access to loans by MSME has fairly increased my business activities of the MSMEs in Gombe State while, the interest rate charged by the banks on MSMEs loans have helped to increase business activities, on the other hand, the loan conditions for MSMEs by banks have fairly helped to increased business activities of the MSMEs in Gombe State. Finally, the study revealed that there is a positive and signicant effect of nancial inclusion on the entrepreneurial growth of the MSMEs in Gombe State. Therefore, the study recommended that Banks should design a mechanism to increase the number of bank branches and agent banking (POS, ATM) also, banks should adopt favourable interest rates and loan conditions that will encourage the entrepreneurial growth of MSMEs in Gombe State.