Several studies and theories have linked economic growth to finance and further posit that a well funded and supported manufacturing sector could transform the economic fortunes of nations. However, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has complained of paucity and unfavourable terms of funding from the Nigerian banks. This study is motivated by the concerns of the industry stakeholders on the need to evaluate the contributions of bank funding on economic growth of Nigeria. Therefore the main aim of the study is to investigate the impact of bank funding on the growth of Nigeria's manufacturing sector. To achieve this aim, the objectives of the study are to contribute to knowledge and practice, examine causality relationship in the funding-growth nexus and assess the impact of bank funding on the growth of the nation's manufacturing sector. Others are to identify factors that affect bank lending to the manufacturers and make recommendations that can improve lending practice. The research is anchored on the endogenous growth theory and underpinned by the realist philosophical paradigm thereby employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data seeking, gathering and analysis. The study identified the lending banks, the regulators and the manufacturers as the three majorstakeholders and administered structured questionnaires on 227 bank operators and 213 manufacturers covering the six identified domains of factors that affect bank funding. The causality and impact tests established that there is a bidirectional relationship between bank funding and manufacturing sector growth and the impact of bank funding is with a lapse of time while the impacts of interest and inflation rates are immediate. Factor analysis of stakeholders'responses confirmed this result and further revealed that weak publicinfrastructure, insurgencies, harsh fiscal and monetary policies adversely affect manufacturers' growth. The findings of this study shall help stakeholders have a better understanding of the issues militating against improved bank funding and challenges of the manufacturers towards achieving economic growth in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that for the economy to tap from the growth enhancing potentials of the manufacturing sector, it is essential to adopt policy measures favourable to the banking and manufacturing sectors. The government should create enabling business environment with special single-digit interestmanufacturing sector intervention fund, provision of stable power and infrastructure for the sectors, and maintain stable exchange rate regime that makes foreign exchange available to the manufacturers. This work covers data from 1987 to 2015 and limited to bank lending as the source of funding to manufacturers. Further studies could extend the period, funding sources, sectors and even territorial coverage.

During the last decades we have seen a growing number of new start-ups in the service/knowledge sector. These types of companies often have no fiscal assets to secure loans with. What types of financing alternatives are there in those situations? I will in this thesis show that there are two directions to choose between to get financial support. By gathering of information I have been able to show that there are more than one alternative to consider when needing funding and that using different alternatives will lead to different results. I will not say which one is the right one, but that there are different ways and there will be different outcomes depending on which one you choose. The study also shows that there are a lot of things you need to take into consideration before using a venture capitalist. An empirical study is made between two companies that decided to use different ways to get the financial support they required. The result shown in this study is that the entrepreneurs own financial situation affect what direction the entrepreneur will take.