GROWTH POTENTIALS OF MICROENTERPRISES IN URBAN AND RURAL AREAS OF NORTHWEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

Microenterprises provide employment and generate income for many people in both urban and rural areas. They bring economic fortunes to people who are not working or desire to work in any formal organization. This study compares the growth potentials of microenterprises in urban and rural areas. A survey was conducted which cover selected micro-enterprise owners operating selected states in Northwest Nigeria. 761 questionnaires were administered directly to the selected samples in both urban and rural areas. The study used regression and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to test all the hypotheses. There are many studies that examined the growth potentials of firms, but there were little attempts to compare microenterprises in rural and urban areas. There is little effort in the past to deliberately study if the micro-enterprises' potentials to grow is dependent on their location. The findings of this study indicate that enterprises have differences in their potentials to growth. The study adds value to the existing literature by identifying the microenterprises’ growth potentials and clarifies differences between urban and rural micro-enterprises. For future researches is recommended to study the growth potentials of microenterprises according to sectors and locations.  Studying growth potentials according to the location would provide useful knowledge on the position and performance of microenterprises.