Garwe, David Kudzaishe2025-03-242025-03-242010Garwe,D.K.(2010).The impact of gender on the characteristics and availability of debt finance to small and medium enterprises in selected cities in the Eastern Cape Province.Alice: University of Fort Harehttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11837/2737Masters ThesesEntrepreneurship and SMEs have, in recent years, become a key focus of research (Herrington, Kew & Kew, 2009). Entrepreneurship is considered to be an important mechanism for economic development through job creation, innovation and its welfare effect, which has led to a burgeoning policy interest in national-level entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship and SMEs is not just an economic event; it is socio-economic phenomenon. SMEs are increasingly seen as playing an important role in the economies of many countries (Minniti, Arenius & Langowitz, 2005). Thus governments throughout the world focus on the development of the SME sector to promote economic growth (Dockel & Ligthelm, 2005:55).enEconomicSOCIAL SCIENCES::Business and economics::Business studies