Government Industrial Policies and Development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State

Abstract

The study investigated Government Industrial Policies and development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in
Port Harcourt metropolis. Two objectives of the study and two research questions guided the study. Two hypotheses
were formulated in the study. The population for this study comprised of 177 SMEs operators in Port Harcourt
Metropolis. The entire population was used for the study. Hence, there was no sampling. The instrument for the study
was a structured questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on government Industrial Policies and the development of Small
and Medium Scale Enterprise in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The instrument was validated by two experts in Business
Education and one expert in Measurement and Evaluation. Test-retest was used to establish the reliability of the
instrument and a reliability coefficient of 0.97 was achieved. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the
responses of the respondents while z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The
findings in the study show that; Export incentive Policy develops SMES at a moderate extent, and tax policy develops
SMEs in Port Harcourt at a moderate extent. There is significant difference in the mean responses of SMEs operators
in Phalga and Obalga on the extent export incentive policy develops SMEs, there is no significant difference in the
mean responses of SMEs operators in Phalga and Obalga on the extent import substitution industrialization policy
develops SMEs in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The following recommendations were made amongst others that
government should effectively implement export incentive policy so as to encourage SMEs to produce and export
more products and government should efficiently implement import substitution policy so as to encourage healthy
business competitiveness.