The determinants of credit access and its impacts on micro and small enterprises: The case of garment producers in Kenya

To explore the factors affecting access to various credit sources for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and to identify the impacts of those factors on profitability and employment growth, data exclusively collected from a stratified random sample of micro and small garment producers in three garment clusters in Nairobi, Kenya were employed. It was found that MSEs in Kenya attempt to resolve the scarcity of credit by borrowing from diverse sources of credit, including such indigenous credit sources as rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs). In all the clusters studied, ROSCAs are the most important credit source at the cluster with the highest density of active garment producers.