Impact of Crowdfunding as an Innovative Entrepreneurial Finance on Nigerian Small and Medium-Sized Businesses' Funding Gaps

This research paper is an explorative and a systematic review study to ascertain the impact of Crowdfunding as an innovative entrepreneurial finance on Nigerian small and medium-sized Businesses funding gap. This study employed secondary sources of data and conducted a systematic review of research articles from several international and reputable journals using JSTOR, Google Scholar, PubMed, and the Research Gate database of all related topics. This study confirmed a direct connection between Crowdfunding and the entrepreneurial funding gaps of SMEs in Nigeria. By democratizing access to finance and empowering different entrepreneurs to obtain funding and evaluate their ideas, crowdfunding has become a competitive alternative to traditional financing, profoundly changing the landscape of innovation. However, a number of factors, including the nature of the innovation, the caliber of the entrepreneur, and the regulatory framework, affect its efficacy. Potential publication bias and a primary focus on product innovation, which may ignore other forms of innovation like process, service, and social innovation, are among the limitations of this study, which is based on current literature. Variability in campaign results, cultural diversity, and local economic conditions all have an impact on crowdfunding success. The study concludes by confirming that Crowdfunding is a viable innovative entrepreneurial financing option for entrepreneurs. The study revealed that Crowdfunding has the potency to fill in the funding gaps being experienced by entrepreneurs of small and medium scale businesses in Nigeria. The study made some legislative recommendations in order to optimize crowdfunding's ability to promote innovation. Governments ought to think about putting in place supportive regulatory frameworks that strike a balance between the flexibility required for creative crowdfunding models and investor protection.