INFLUENCE OF BUSINESS INFORMATION USE ON PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN PORT-HARCOURT NIGERIA.

Abstract At the center of any economy lies the contributions of the SMEs. It is documented that the economic growth experienced in the developed countries of the world can be attributed largely to the contributions of the SME sector. Unfortunately in Nigeria, research has shown the performance of SMEs to be low especially in Port-Harcourt. This study examined by analyzing the influence of business information use on performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Port-Harcourt Nigeria. Data collection was done by the use of a self-structured questionnaire. Four hundred and forty eight (448) copies of questionnaires were distributed to proprietors of Small and Medium Enterprises registered under the National Association of Small Scale Industrialist Rivers State Chapter. Four hundred and twenty six copies were retrieved while three hundred and ten copies were used for analysis. The research adopted a descriptive and inferential analysis to determine characteristic and description of respondent for each variable indicator and hypothesis using linear regression. The results showed that business information use does influence performance of SMEs in Port-Harcourt (R = 0.748, R2 = 0.560, F = 387.021 Sig. = 0.000). The study concludes that business information use for SMEs performance is inevitable. It is recommended that agencies in charge of SMEs in Nigeria should put more effort in ensuring formal information sources are made available to proprietors of SMEs