ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS ANDMICRO FINANCE FUNDING IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

The study examined the relationship between small and medium scale entrepreneurial firms performance in relation to the micro finance funding at their disposal. The focus was on micro finance institution and entrepreneurial firms in southwestern Nigeria. A total of 168 registered small and medium and scale entrepreneurial firms across the six state in south west Nigeria constitute the sample population. However 153 registered small and medium and scale entrepreneurial firms were used for the analysis following the data screening and evaluation. A purposive random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The data collected was analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation.The findings revealed that a significant and positive relationship exists between loans accessed from micro finance banks (MFBs) and the performance of small and medium scale entrepreneurial firms. The study concluded that the significant contribution of microfinance funding narrows the financial gap for SMEs businesses