Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are one of the strongest drivers of economic development, innovation and employment.
Access to finance is frequently identified as a critical barrier to growth for MSMEs.Creating opportunities for MSMEs in emerging markets is a key way to advance economic development and reduce poverty.
The private and public sector can better address this matter if they have better insights about the magnitude and nature of the finance gap. Hence, sizing MSME finance gap is crucial for the governors, financiers and other private sector players to target high potential growth areas and hence more efficiently support MSME sector development.
MSME finance gap is estimated as the difference between current supply and potential demand which can potentially be addressed by financial institutions. The MSME finance gap assumes that the firms in a developing country have the same willingness and ability to borrow as their counterparts in well- developed credit markets and operate in comparable institutional environments — and that financial institutions lend at similar intensities as their benchmarked counterparts.

See http://www.smefinanceforum.org/data-sites/msme-finance-gap

Lack of access to financial services is a key barrier to the growth of micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs). IFC is working to develop solutions to close the MSME financing gap. By partnering with many types of financial intermediaries, including microfinance institutions (MFIs), commercial banks, leasing companies, and private equity funds, IFC reaches many more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) than it could directly.

See http://smefinanceforum.org

MSME-CI presents secondary data collected by various institutions (statistical institutes, ministries, international organizations, small business promotion agencies, research institutions and others) using different methods (survey, census and others). Please read the “Description Note on the MSME Country Indicators 2014” along with the country specific comments in the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise Country Indicators before using the data. http://msmecountryindicators.smefinanceforum.org/description.html