Abstract:
In providing empirical answers to whether microfinance institutions have played enough
roles in entrepreneurship development in Ogun State, Nigeria, a sample of 180 SMEs was
purposively selected in Sango-Ota Industrial Area of Ogun State. A well-structured set of
questionnaires was administered to the selected SMEs owners to elicit primary data for a
rigorous empirical analysis. Consequently, the following are the summary of the important
findings that emerged in this study; most of the selected entrepreneurs engaged in foods and
consumables enterprises, in which the business had existed between 11 and 15 years.
Further analysis confirmed that many of the participants were one man business owners,
with range 6 to10 million naira as their monthly sales turn over, and at the same time had a
range of 6 to10 years banking relationship with microfinance banks during their businesses.
Moreover, it was discovered from the study that microfinance institutions played important
roles in entrepreneurship development - SMEs by making credit available for the
entrepreneurs, empowering poor entrepreneurs and increasing savings opportunity for the
business owners because the majority of the business owners had an impressive access to
loans of the banks. However, the persistent collapse of SMEs in the area was majorly
driven by excessive interest rate in obtaining capital from the microfinance institutions. In
view of the above, the policymakers in Nigeria should embark on policy that would ensure a sustainable availability of credit to entrepreneurs, empowering poor entrepreneurs and
increasing savings opportunity for the business owners and more importantly, cost of
capital should be reduced drastically to curb persistent collapse of SMEs in the country
