Assessment of Bank Loan on Nigeria Small Business Export Development in Plateau State

Abstract

The activities of small business and that of bank are of mutually inclusive principle. Small business had limited capacity to grow business hence the involvement of bank to provide support, leading to development. Small business capacity of export products could not be done without the direct play of bank availing small business loans to match the trend. With this support from bank, small business developed to export its products.. This research assessed bank loan on small business export development in Plateau State. Some small businesses desired to develop export businesses. This research adopted the descriptive survey design approach with a population of 3,456,890. Yamane formula was adopted to arrive at a sample size of 417. Simple random sampling method was used for the selection of small business with a distribution of 470 copies of questionnaire as self-administered. However, 458 responded and retrieved from small business that enjoyed or were enjoying bank loans as at the period of this study. Not all of the small business engaged in export but in the process to engage in export business. The source of data for this research was primary source with five-point Likert-scale and the nature of questionnaire was applied and validated by four senior lecturers in the field of banking and business administration. The method of data analysis was by linear regression employed to test the hypothesis to see the effect of bank loan on small business export development. Finding showed that bank loan had not significantly had positive effect on small business export development in Plateau State. In conclusion, banks and small business are partners in progress with each having unique business activities. The development of small business export should be paramount in Plateau State, considering the nature of business activities in the state. This research recommended that bank should step up its banking process of availing loans to small business so that small business could develop their export activities. This step up should be in the form of grouping small business in Plateau State into segments and drastically reduce loan charges but with constant monitoring of their activities.