STRATEGIC PLANNING AND THE SUSTAINABILITY OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN KOGI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Despite what appears to be improved institutional support for the SME sector and an apparent increase in interest in starting small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria, sustainability seems to be falling short of expectations. According to several reports, the poor performance of SMEs may be caused by a variety of attitudes toward strategic planning. The study investigated Role of Strategic Planning on the Sustainability of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Kogi State, Nigeria. The aim was to establish the connection between sustainability of SMEs and strategic planning/budgeting. Two hypotheses were formulated and a sample size of 400 was chosen out of the population of 938,740 registered SMEs with SMEDAN for the study. The study adopted a descriptive research design. With the use of SPSS, a descriptive and regression analysis was performed. The study revealed that there is a strong correlation between the independent variables strategic planning (R value of 0.488) and budgeting (R value of 0.419) and the sustainability of SMEs. It was therefore recommended among others that strategic planning as a concept and method should be used to achieve sustainability for the Small and Medium Enterprises in Kogi State, Nigeria; SME owners should have a well formulated budget for their enterprises to ensure sustainability.