Oromia Credit and Saving Share Company (OCSSC) in Strengthening Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) of Guder Town, Toke Kutaye District, West Shoa Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, several microfinance institutions (MFIs) have established and have been operating towards resolving the credit access problem of the poor particularly to those who participates in the petty business like SMEs. The objectives of the study were to assess the roles of MFIs in strengthening SMEs, examine the preference level of MFIs than others, and identify factors affecting SMEs in accessing MFIs in a specified area. The study used both primary and secondary data sources. The primary data was collected via close ended questionnaire while secondary data gathered from different documents of the MFIs and internet. Both purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select 60 sample size using Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) in which 22 and 38 of them were from 01 and 02 kebeles respectively. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as arithmetic mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage, figures, and charts while description, narration, and interpretation were used for qualitative data analysis. The finding reveals OCSSC was highly preferred due to benefiting SMEs providing easy loan access, low interest charge, and opening saving account. However, SMEs encountered absence of loan as per demand, insufficient supervision, training, and advice, high tax charge, lack of working place, market connection problem, and lack of advanced technology-based services. The study recommends MFIs should provide sufficient supervision, training, and advice, grant amount of demanded as much as possible, and deliver advanced technology-based services for SMEs while the government should overcome high tax charge, lack of working place, and marketing problem. Keywords: microfinance, preference level, enterprise, credit access, saving accoun