Abstract:
This article investigates the contribution of small and medium enterprises towards the economic development in sub-Saharan African countries. It also examines the SMEs' role in employment creation and the challenges of the sector in accessing credit from most financial institutions. The study collected data from two hundred (200) respondents of SMEs operators in some of the countries (Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo etc.) and the data was analyzed using SPSS with the aid of statistical tools such as tables, pie chat, bar chart, histogram, frequencies and percentages. The research reveal that SME's contribution to the economic developments of Sub-Saharan African countries is overwhelming through the creation of employment, GDP, poverty reduction, empowerment of women, and supporting large companies. However, despite the great contribution of the sector, lack of capital, low level of education, electricity/power issues, and improper records keeping were identified as SME's challenges in the sub-Saharan Africa. The study concludes that: SMEs are very crucial to the development of sub-Saharan African economies so governments and key stakeholders should support their operations to ensure long term sustainability. We recommend that there should be monitoring and supervision by the sectors that provide the SMEs with credit to make sure that SMEs operators use the loans for the intended purposes to reduce default rate and collapse rates for long term existence.
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