Access to finance has been considered to be one of the important factors in influencing firms’ real activities and in promoting aggregates. However, literature on the relationship between finance and firm-level productivity is almost non-existent for African countries. This paper fills this gap by using cross-sectional firm-level data to estimate the effect of access to finance on labour productivity, total factor productivity (TFP), and the stochastic frontier trans-log model. This study also estimates an instrumental variable model – two-stage least square estimator to address potential endogeneity bias between access to credit and firms’ productivity. The results obtained show that the lack of access to finance, especially overdraft facilities negatively affects the productivity of firms in Africa. Also, smaller firms and sole-proprietorships are mostly affected because they have less access to finance. This study suggests that the development of a balanced financial system should be of topmost priority to policy makers. This ensures that more finance is channelled towards those firms whose productivity depends heavily on the availability of finance irrespective of their characteristics. This would result in firms increasing their investments in productivity-enhancing activities, which would benefit long-term economic growth.
Publications

March 11, 2018
Finance and Firm Productivity in Africa: Background Study from World Bank Enterprise Survey Data
Access to finance has been considered to be one of the important factors in influencing firms’ real activities and in promoting aggregates. However, literature on the relationship between finance and firm-level productivity is almost non-existent for African countries. This paper fills this gap by using cross-sectional firm-level data to estimate the effect of access to […]
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Rising Inflation: Will The MPC Raise The Policy Rate Or Support Economic Growth
This brief examines global and domestic developments in
Nigeria as well as the effect of slowdown in economic growth of key oil
consuming nations on the Nigerian economy.
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 28)
OPEC
weekly basket price increased marginally from $45.09 on June 17, 2016 to $45.95
on June 24, 2016, while Nigerias bonny light increased from $47.61
to $48.90 (with a peak of $49.2 on June 23, 2016)within the same
period. The rise in oil price, amidst downward pressures, was likely driven by
expectations that the UK would remain in the EU. However, price fell (to
$47.61) on June 24, 2016 following the outcome of the UK referendum (on June
23, 2016) to leave the EU. This was driven by concerns over a possible
contagion effect of further disintegration on the EU (a major oil consumer) which
could drive down oil demand in the longer term. In the medium term, oil prices could face
further pressure as a result of rising crude oil output and attenuating production
disruptions in Canada and Nigeria. Although, the recent rise in oil prices seem
transient, Nigeria can benefit from the marginal rise if disruptions in oil production
is quickly resolved