Abstract This study attempts to provide some understanding about SMEs’ access to finance within the West African sub-region with particular interest in establishing whether there are similarities and/or differences in the determinants of SMEs access to finance across countries in SSA. For robustness sake, we developed both subjective and objective measures of access to finance. Using data from World Bank’s Enterprise Survey data set, we examine the determinants of access to finance both at the sub-regional level and at the country-level. We found that, generally, at the sub-regional level, access to finance is strongly determined by factors such as firm size, ownership, strength of legal rights, and depth of credit information, firm’s export orientation and the experience of the top manager. However, we found important differences in the correlates of firms’ access to finance at the country level. The findings of this study therefore have important implications for policy.

中文翻译：

---

为非洲中小型企业的增长融资：西非经共体内部中小型企业融资的矛盾是什么？

摘要这项研究试图为西非分区域内的中小企业获得融资提供一些理解，尤其是要确定在撒哈拉以南国家之间，中小企业获得融资的决定因素是否存在相同和/或不同之处。为了稳健起见，我们制定了获取资金的主观和客观指标。我们使用世界银行企业调查数据集中的数据，研究了在次区域和国家层面获得融资的决定性因素。我们发现，一般而言，在次区域级别，获得融资的机会在很大程度上取决于公司规模，所有权，合法权利的实力以及信用信息的深度，公司的出口方向和最高管理者的经验等因素。然而，我们发现公司在国家一级获得融资的相关性之间存在重要差异。因此，这项研究的结果对政策具有重要意义。