International Journal of Economics, Commerce and Management United Kingdom Vol. III, Issue 3, March 2015 Licensed under Creative Common Page 1 http://ijecm.co.uk/ ISSN 2348 0386 GROWTH AND CONSTRAINT ANALYSIS OF MICRO AND SMALL SCALE AGRO ENTERPRISES IN ACCRA, GHANA Edinam Dope Setsoafia Dept. of Agriculture and Resource Economics University for Development Studies, FACS, Nyankpalla Campus, Tamale, Ghana edsetsoafia@gmail.com Joshua Aboah PGHGSFP, SNV Ghana, Netherlands Development Organisation, Northern Portfolio office, Tamale, Ghana joshaboah@gmail.com Danso- Abbeam Gideon Dept. of Agriculture and Resource Economics University for Development Studies, FACS, Nyankpalla Campus, Tamale, Ghana nanayawdansoabbeam@gmail.com Abstract Micro small enterprises make up a significant portion of the private investments in the agro- industrial sector of Ghana. Despite of it, these enterprises are bedeviled with a whole lot of constraints. The study investigates the specific effects of identified constraints on the growth potential of agro MSE in the Greater Accra region, Ghana. A multi stage sampling was used to select a sample of 120 agribusiness operators in the region. Ordered probit model was used to measure the effects of the identified constraint on growth potential of the business while the linear OLS model was used to measure the effects of the constraints on growth performance. The study revealed empirically that some constraints (i.e. high cost of production, insufficient government support) hinder performance of agro MSEs whilst others (i.e. insufficient government support, high cedi depreciation rate, lack of collateral) impede the growth potential. The study recommends amongst others, that policy makers and stakeholders such as the banks and financial institutions should come up with more innovative ways of guaranteeing loans, such as marketing arrangements, in order to allow agro MSEs expand their businesses. Keywords: Micro small enterprises, Agribusiness constraints, Business growth, Challenges