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Utilization of Financial Resources for Sustainable Development by Micro, Small and Medium Agricultural Enterprises in Enugu State, Nigeria

The study investigated the utilization of financial resources for sustainable development by micro, small and medium agricultural enterprises in Enugu State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population for the study was 243 made up of 162 micro, 79 small and 2 medium entrepreneurs in the study area. The entire population was studied due to manageable size of the population. The instrument for data collection was 21 –item structured questionnaire. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the internal consistency of the items and an overall reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained. The data collected were analyzed using weighted mean to answer the research questions while ANOVA statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at the probability level of 0.05. The findings revealed that lease holding, owner’s capital, issue of shares, and capital support and subsidies from government are some of the sources of financial resources for sustainable development by micro, small and medium agricultural enterprises. The findings also showed that allocation based on needs, allocation of funds based on budgets and budgeting, proportional allocation of funds to both fixed and current assets, and judicious allocation of funds based on budget procedure determined funds were utilized by entrepreneurs in micro, small and medium agricultural enterprises. The study also found that there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in the mean ratings of micro, small and medium agricultural entrepreneurs on the hypotheses tested. It was recommended that micro, small and medium agricultural entrepreneurs in Enugu State should make effort to adopt the identified strategies in order to ensure efficient utilization of financial resources in their enterprises. Educational institutions should use these findings to teach students on sources of financial resources and how these financial resources should be utilized as financial tools for successes of the enterprise.