ASSESSMENT OF THE CHALLENGES OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN JALINGO TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constitute a large chunk of commercial activities worldwide contributing significantly to many economies. SMEs in Nigeria have performed below expectation considering the rate of unemployment, poverty and national productivities. The low survival rate of SMEs in Nigeria, Jalingo metropolies inclusive motivated this study. The assessed the challenges of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in jalingo, Taraba state. The objective of the study was to address the extent to which poor financing, inadequate power supply, lack of managerial skills and multiple taxation constitute a major challenges in the performance of SMEs. The study adopted a cross sectional survey research design using 1,200 selected registered operators of SMEs in Jalingo, while the sample size of 120 was judgmentally determined from 10% of the population. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics while formulated hypotheses were tested using z-test. Results from the data analysis indicated that poor financing, inadequate power supply, lack of managerial skills and multiple taxation were major challenges confronting SMEs in Jalingo, Taraba state. The study therefore recommends that government should provide long-term loans and soft loans to SMEs operators, establishment of SMEs funding agency, public/private sector partnership in infrastructural provision, capacity building (managerial skills) for SMEs operators and provision of tax incentives for SMEs operators.