Title: Does gender matter in credit denial among small and medium scale enterprises in Ghana?

Authors: Samuel Tawiah Baidoo; Daniel Sakyi; Jacob Benson Aidoo

Addresses: Department of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana ' Department of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana ' Issuers Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, Accra, Ghana

Abstract: The role played by small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in employment creation, economic growth and poverty reduction of the developing world cannot be overemphasised. However, the ability of these enterprises to access credit in order to expand their businesses has for years remain a key challenge. Past studies on credit denial among SMEs have emphasised firms' characteristics with little emphasis on firm owners' characteristics such as gender. The present study revisits previous studies and provides evidence supporting our hypothesis that gender matters in credit denial among SMEs. The study relies mainly on primary data and applies the binary probit estimation technique to the dataset. The study reveals among others that owners of small and medium scale enterprises who are females are less likely to be denied credit. Given the findings, recommendations and relevant policy implications are provided.

Keywords: gender; entrepreneurship; small-and-medium-scale enterprises; credit denial; probit regression; Ghana.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2020.104980

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2020 Vol.39 No.3, pp.339 - 362

Received: 26 Jan 2018
Accepted: 19 Mar 2018
Published online: 10 Feb 2020 *

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