Research

The poverty crisis is global with some 689 million people classified as poor, and living on incomes of less than $1.9 a day (The Human Development Report, 2020). Uganda has seen strong economic growth rates over the past decade averaging 5.4% GPD per year, along with a decrease in poverty. Nevertheless, the gains in poverty reduction have not been fairly distributed. This has made some scholars doubt the substantial decline in poverty (Daniels & Amp; Minot, 2014). Despite Uganda’s progress in reducing poverty since 1992, there have also been significant movements both into and out of poverty, and a sizeable minority of households have been persistently poor.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is widely regarded as one of the engines for social economic growth, employment, skills and technology transfers. More specifically, Mallampally & Sauvent (1999) highlight that FDI can make a considerable contribution to the economic progress of developing countries. A large number of developing countries lack significant domestic savings in order to achieve their internal investment goals, therefore FDI appears to provide a means for this requirement.

Small and Medium Enterprises play an important role in developing countries by contributing to national growth. Many scholars like Ojukwu (2006) and Eze (2015) believe that SMEs are the building block of any developing country. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, SMEs in Nigeria contribute about 48% of the national Gross Domestic Product and 84% of employment.