The effect of banking services on the profitability of the top 100 small and medium enterprises in Kenya
Abstract
Small and medium enterprises in Kenya form a bulk of the economy and its contribution is
important for the country. Banks, also, are known to spur the growth of businesses and therefore
the services they provide to small and medium enterprises are important to enable that growth.
Various studies were done on the effects of banks on the small and medium enterprises but they
had not analyzed using the variables used in the study. This provided the research gap and the
research objective which was to determine the effects of banking services on growth of Top 100
SMEs in Kenya. The study used descriptive cross-sectional study design, with questionnaires
being the primary data collection tool. The questionnaire was designed and sent to company
managers for their response in order to answer the research question. From the responses
provided and the study research objective, descriptive statistics was provided and data analysis
was done using the multiple regression analysis as the study variables were in ordinal scale. Data
was analyzed using SPSS to determine the effect of banking services on growth of the Top 100
SMEs in Kenya. The study findings indicated that that the value of SMEs’ assets, debt-equity
ratio, monthly average savings and SME training had an effect on the profitability (ROA) of the
SMEs while the amount of loan given to SMEs had no effect on the profitability of the Top 100
SMEs in Kenya. The study encountered several challenges including low response from the
SMEs and also the absence of specific information which made the study to use ordinal scaling
for data gathering. The study recommended that the government should have information from
SMEs and have an information database so as to be able to gather information easily, help in
policy formulation and aid in decision making.
Publisher
University of Nairobi