Roles of commercial banks in financing small and medium enterprises ( SME ) in Tanzania :the case study of CRDB bank limited

The lack of collateral by the required firm is the major problem impeding SME access to loan finance from banks. Matters of the financial support SMEs take on special significance in Tanzania. The study focused on the Roles of Commercial Banks in financing the SMEs in Tanzania. CRDB Bank Limited as a Commercial Bank has been taken as the focus of the study. The main objective was to identify and make an assessment of the roles played by Commercial Banks in assisting the SMEs. The study has generalized some of the significant facts in the growth of SMEs in relation to commercial banks loan provided such profitability growth, employment growth, capital growth and Investment in general. The study was restricted to Dar es Salaam due to large number of SMEs concentrated in this place. Data analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and testing the hypotheses by using Chi-square. The study findings indicate that there are significant relationship between the loan offered by commercial banks and SMEs growth, therefore commercial bank should strive to provide loan to the SMEs in the country due its importance in the economy The loan provided should be done carefully.