You are running a small, family-owned business in a bustling African city. This business was built from scratch by you through hard work and by reinvesting all your profits. Today, your business needs funding to break into new markets, and you recently heard that new government reforms have made it easier to access loans. Banks are more open, paperwork is simpler, and funding is finally within reach. But you don’t apply. Why?
This is the paradox at the heart of SME finance in Africa: access is improving, but uptake remains stubbornly low. A new study led by NUSC colleague Dr. Andrew Hansen-Addy, with Prof. Mario Davide Parrilli and Dr. Ishmael Tingbani, dives deep into this puzzle—revealing why increased access to finance doesn’t always lead to more borrowing, and what that means for SME policy, resilience, and growth.
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