Entrepreneurship Support Agencies (ESA) and Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria

Abstract

Small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) are lifeblood of most economies. On the average SMEs represent over 90% of the enterprises and account for 50 to 60% of employment in most African countries. This study appraised the developmental eff orts of Enterprise Supporting Agencies (ESAs) and their Contribution to Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (SMEs) Growth in Nigeria. The study adopted survey technique of which about one hundred and eighty-fi ve (185) questionnaire were administered to selected small businesses in Lagos State, Nigeria through purposeful random sampling to get primary data that treated appropriate research questions and two hypotheses were tested accordingly. The study found that the ESAs need to advance on their primary functions of advisory and informational support and that there is a relationship between training and development of ESAs to SMEs Growth in Nigeria. The study recommends that Government should work relentlessly towards providing infrastructural support, reduction of bottlenecks of business registration and mitigate the high costs of doing business and ESAs should be properly be regulated and the role of business support should not be duplicated by other agencies to enhance effi ciency.

Keywords

• enterprise support agencies (ESAs)
• small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
• business support services
• entrepreneurship