Financial Inclusion in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs): Impact of Financial Growth Stages and Financial Literacy (original) (raw)

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are being looked upon by an economy as the drivers for its growth, sustainability and development. They play a critical role towards a country’s employment generation, exports and empowerment. However, they face a number of problems, such as, absence of adequate and timely banking finance, limited capital and knowledge, non-availability of suitable technology and low production capacity amongst others. Financial inclusion is the process of providing financial services to the weaker and disadvantaged sections of the economy. It thus becomes imperative to study the concept of financial inclusion with respect to MSMEs, since MSMEs could be considered as the weaker segment as compared to their larger counterparts. Objectives: The objective of this research is to ascertain the relationship between financial growth stages of MSMEs and financial inclusion. The research also seeks to examine the relationship between financial literacy amongst MSME...