EFFECT OF POLITICAL DISTRUST ON RESPONSE TO CBNS CREDIT FACILITIES AMONG SMALL BUSINESS OPERATORS IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA

The role of small and medium scale enterprises in economic development, job creation, income generation, and wealth distribution are widely highlighted in the literature. More so, research has implicated procedural ambiguities, lack of valuable assets, oligopolistic financial institutions, biases by commercial banks, business size, education, proximity to credit source and types of credit source, lending requirements, collateral demands, and lack of credit as constraints to credit facilities. However, the present study examined political distrust as a previously unexplored variable that could determine response to available credit facilities. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey. A total of one hundred and ninety-eight small businesses were randomly selected from three states in southeast Nigeria as the study participants. A self-report measure was developed to obtain relevant data. Simple linear regression analysis was used for data analysis, and it was found that political distrust predicted response to CBNs credit facilities. Implications and recommendations are discussed.