Evaluating the Relationship between Small Enterprise Performance and Poverty Reduction in Ghana

Abstract

Poverty is established as pandemic in Africa, and Ghana in particular. Among the various factors that have been identified as causes of poverty in Ghana is low income level. This research is therefore based on the general proposition that Poverty in Ghana is a result of low incomes earned from small scale enterprises where the poor are employed. It pursued the conception that increasing performance of SMEs could help reduce poverty. Sample was taken from owners of small scale enterprises in poverty endemic zones in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Respondents were interviewed with structured and unstructured questionnaire. Ordinary Least Square Regression statistics were used to confirm the negative relationship between performance of SMEs and reduction in poverty.

Keywords: Ghana, Poverty, Small Scale Enterprise.