AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECT OF MANAGING SMALL-SCALE BUSINESS IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to find the problems and prospects of financing small scale business enterprises in Etsako Local Government Area of Edo State. The study examined the finance constraints to small scale farming. Data were obtained using research questionnaires from hundred (100) farmers randomly selected from five (5) villages in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State. However, the decision of this study was prompted by the important role played by the small scale business enterprises, the small scale business enterprise have been known to: Provide gainful employment. Provide essential intermediate goods and services to most farmers and also. Provide means of embryo to new entrepreneurial talent by helping to groom future managers. The statistical method employed for analysis was the simple percentage method. The analysis of the responses to the researcher questionnaires yielded the following finding. Effect of neglecting funding on productivity in agriculture. Eect of agricultural facilities on agricultural produce productivity. Strategies of strengthening agricultural finance and finance constraints and. The effect of planning on small scale business enterprise Thus, the study therefore recommends that strategies that would enhance agricultural financing with the aid of improving the standard of living the farmers in the area be put in place.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

A small business is a business that privately owned and operated with a small number of employees and relatively low volume of sales. Small businesses are normally owned by corporations, partnership or proprietorship. The legal definition of “small” varies historically by country and by industry, however a small business is defined by fair work are 2009 as one with fewer than 15 employees. Small businesses are common in many countries depending on the economic system in operation. Typical examples include: convenience stores, other small shops (such as bakery), tradesmen, photographers, farmers e.t.c. small business form an integral part of a healthy national economy. Agricultural business is vested mainly with small-scale farmers who are found mostly in rural areas in Nigeria and are responsible for production of food that is consumed both in rural and urban communities, and raw materials needed by the industrial sector of the economy (Rehji, 1999). In discharging these responsibilities they face a lot of problems that include inadequate or restricted access to credit facilities (Ajakaye, 1985) FAO (1990), attributed the downward trend in per capital food production in Nigeria to increase in farming population which demands a continuous cropping on the soils without adequate fallow periods resulting into infertile soil, nature of land tenure in the country and restricted access to credit facilities to expand farm holdings.

According to Shepherd (1977), credit determines access to all of the resources on which farmers depend on. Credit serves as a source of funds to farmers that can be utilized in production process. Ogundeji (1998) stated that agricultural business like any other business can be financed through personal savings, friends or family assistance, partnership, bank loans, credit terms, private placements, hire purchase and cooperative societies. Though the federal government of Nigeria, in recognition of the need to finance agricultural business directed all licensed banks through central bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 1977 to open bank branches in the rural areas and also establishment of Agro-allied bank. This is to encourage banking habit, provide agricultural credit with minimal interest and redress the lopsidedness in the availability of banking service in rural areas; farmers are still constrained in their access to credit facilities from bank and other banking services.