A Non-financial Assessment: Performance of Micro and Small Scale Agribusinesses in Northern Region of Ghana

The need for the reduction in poverty status of rural people through the development of Agribusiness
is of paramount concern to most governments. Agribusiness in Africa is considered the catalyst for
economic growth and poverty reduction. The importance of Agribusiness to the development of
Ghana is quiet clear however very little is done to develop it. The broad question is, are these
businesses not doing well? The paper is aimed at assessing the performance of Micro and Small
Business using the non-financial method. 160 Micro and Small Business were surveyed across the
northern region of Ghana using multi-stage sampling approach in 2012. The result showed that the
four most important objectives of the entrepreneurs were achieved. This included; to increase level of
household income, to increase security of household income, to enhance business profitability, and
Satisfaction from running own Business. The most important challenges identified are, lack of working
capital, Poor access to credit, and High cost of credit. There is agreement among the objectives and
challenges identified by entrepreneurs of micro and small Agribusiness. Entrepreneurs were generally
satisfied with the performance of their Businesses. Efforts should be made by government and all
stakeholders in Agribusiness to train Medium and Small-scale Agribusinesses (MSAs) on the need to
keep records, save money, operate a Business account and also register their Businesses. Further
work is, however, required to carry out a more detailed analysis to compare the performance of men
and women entrepreneurs in MSAs using the non-financial approach. The study should also be
redesigned to cover only one or two areas of Agribusiness.