| dc.description.abstract | SMEs‟ financial performance has recently received a growing attention in both economic
and financial literature, much of which in the developed economies. Much of the existing
literature has however largely focused on the macroeconomic and microeconomic factors
that influence firm financing, and limited attention given to the effects of the choice of
the financing facilities on performances thereof. This coupled with the limited literature
on the same, locally, present a significant gap in literature. It is upon the inadequacy of
the current literature which made this study to be borne to fill the identified knowledge
by analyzing the effect of choice of financial facilities by SMEs in Nairobi on financial
performance. Specifically, the study focused the effect of interest charged on loan, loan
size, collateral requirement and product range on financial performance of SMEs in
Nairobi. This study was based on an exploratory design and targeted all top 100 SMEs in
Kenya for the year 2013, acquired from the ranking and published list by KPMG and
Nation Media Group. The sample size of this study was 30 SMEs .A questionnaire was
used as main instrument for data collection from premises of the participant SMEs. In
addition, correlation and multiple regressions were employed to determine the
relationship between and among the studied variables. Statistical packages for social
sciences version 20.0 was used for data analysis. From the findings of the study, it was
concluded that external borrowings are considered to be the cheapest source of financing
because of the tax benefits; SMEs‟ access to external sources of funding depends largely
on the development of financial markets, and bank loans and overdrafts are the most
widespread debt financing methods for SMEs hence it was recommended that there
should be an appropriate capital structure that generates the maximum profit for the
SMEs, as too less equity financing increases the control of the owners to a large extent,
banks should improve transparency on their internal ratings, SMEs should strive to better
understand banks‟ loan requirements, deliver clear, complete and timely financial and
performance data, and improve rating-relevant factors such as cash flow, equity,
accounting, controlling, management, the business strategy, collateral and guarantees and
public policy should promote a code of conduct for minimum ratings disclosure, foster
venture capital, and improve tax treatment of retained earnings. | en_US |
