Evaluating the Sources of Financing Working Capital of Small Businesses in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality

Abstract

The role of small and medium enterprises in the development of the economies of third-world countries is by far indispensable. However, the ability of these enterprises to raise their working capital to perform these roles remains laborious. This paper evaluated sources of financing working capital, assessed the accessibility and utilization of traditional financing options, examined the role and significance of alternative financing methods and proposed recommendations to SMEs in the Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region of Ghana. The study considered 120 (53.3%) out of 225 SMEs in the Municipality. It adopted a quasi-experimental research design and obtained data using a cross-sectional survey. Descriptive statistics was used to evaluate the components of working capital. The study showed that SMEs operators preferred the use of personal funding for their businesses to the use of bank loans. Again, the firms appear to be liquidity conscious and thus, refrained from financing long-term projects with short-term funds. A key recommendation of the paper is that SMEs should make use of entrepreneurial programs offered by the NBSSI and NGOs since these come with education and training.