Challenges and Opportunities of Micro and Small Munifacturing Enterprises the Case of Easter Zone of Tigray

The study presented in this paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities of micro and small manufacturing enterprises in Easter Zone of Tigray. The study has collected relevant information from a survey of 323 entrepreneurs and interviewees from micro and small enterprises agency as sources of primary data for the study. Systematic random sampling was used to select sample respondents from the selected district towns, while purposive for interviewees from the micro and small enterprises Agency. Then the analysis was conducted using SPSS version 20 software. The result indicated that there are seldom young entrepreneurs with high school level of education. The entrepreneurs have good attitude towards the business. The entrepreneurs face financial difficulties due to high collateral requirements from the financial institutions. The plants do not have adequate machineries and modern technology. They are not good in distributing their products to their respective customers. The enterprises have good relationship with customers. Hence there is a scope for developing and expanding their business. There is an interruption in electric power supply which hinders the enterprises performance. Therefore, entrepreneurs should intend to take basic trainings and/or formal education so as to be more competent in the business world. Moreover, both entrepreneurs and government should make effort to ensure electric power supply continuously.