Access to Finance and High-Growth Entrepreneurship in Nigeria: Filling the Evidence Gap on Capital Structure Choices

This study empirically examines the financing patterns, capital structure choices, and finance access barriers of high-growth potential entrepreneurs in Nigeria, addressing the significant evidence gap on how Nigeria's most promising ventures finance their growth and how capital access constraints shape their development trajectories. Research on financing for Nigerian enterprises has concentrated heavily on the challenges facing micro and small enterprises, leaving the specific finance challenges facing growth-oriented ventures at the SME-to-mid-tier transition zone understudied. The study employs a longitudinal design, collecting financing history and performance data from 150 entrepreneurs who have demonstrated high-growth venture characteristics at baseline and following up after 18 months. Financing source data, capital structure evolution, and perceived financing barrier experiences are collected through structured interviews at both time points. Growth outcome data are collected from enterprise records. Panel data analysis examines the relationship between financing access events and subsequent growth outcomes. Findings indicate that ventures that successfully access formal equity investment at the initial data collection point show significantly faster revenue growth at follow-up. However, access to formal equity is concentrated among ventures with male founders, university-educated founders, and Lagos-based ventures, revealing significant access inequality. Retained earnings remain the dominant growth financing source for the majority of high-growth ventures, constraining the speed of scale-up. Keywords: access to finance, high-growth entrepreneurship, capital structure, Nigeria, venture financing.