PROBLEM AFFECTING THE GROWTH OF SMALL SCALE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

PROBLEM AFFECTING THE GROWTH OF SMALL SCALE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The role of small and medium scale enterprises in developing countries, Nigeria in particular is progressively becoming significant. Significant in the sense that all available resources in any given situation in the economic well- being of a nation must be developed for industrialization and ultimately consumption through the small and medium scale businesses. Hence, the impact and potential contribution of small and medium scale businesses on a broad and diverse base as well as their accelerated effect in achieving macro economic objectives pertaining full employment, income distribution and the development of local technology, make the existence most inevitable. Therefore, the importance of small and medium scale enterprises in particular to the general economic development of any nation especially a developing one like Nigeria cannot be over emphasized.
Small and medium scale enterprises (SMES) have been recognized as indispensable components of natural development in both developed and developing economies. This subsector of the economy is globally acknowledged to contribute substantially in enhancing employment creation or generation, poverty alleviation, equitable distribution of resources, income redistribution, technical and technological innovation, entrepreneurial  skills  development, more uniform industrial and economic region- moreover, they have been touted strategic in ensuring food security and encouraging rapid industrialization and reversal of rural-urban migration.
Although small and medium scale enterprises (SMES) are seen as veritable engines of economic development, the growth and development of small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria have  been  slow and in  some cases even stunted, due to a number of problems and  challenges confronting this all-important sub-sector of