Abstract:
The main objective of the research is to describe and investigate challenges affecting the
performance of small and medium scale footwear enterprises in Yeka sub city by taking
profitability as a measurement for performance. Descriptive and inferential analyses were
done on the information collected through questionnaire from all the footwear SMEs operating
in the area. The research identified different constraints on SMES in footwear sector
performance such as lack of modern technology, working location, lack of input supply, and
lack of skilled workforce are identified as challenges affecting the performance of small
footwear enterprises. The empirical study considered four major challenges which seem to
affect performance of SMEs in footwear business which are: finance, market, intestinal linkage
and government policies and regulation challenges. findings further indicate that, there exists
linear and positive significant ranging from substantial to strong relationship was found
between independent variables and dependent variable. Moreover, the selected independent
variables may explain the variations in the dependent variable. In view of these, the researcher
recommends an innovative support schemes to ameliorate and accelerate the growth of the
small footwear enterprises to medium or large enterprises.
