Small-scale enterprises have become an important contributor to Ethiopiaâ€™s economy. The sectorrncontributes to the national objective of creating employment opportunities, trainingrnentrepreneurs, generating income and providing a source of livelihood for the majority of low-rnincome households in the country, accounting for material amount of GDP (Eshetu and Mammo,rn2009). Improving access to finance for small business is an important devilment tool, because itrnhelps these business sectors, in addition to strengthening the forward and backward integration tornand from different sectors, to create employment for the unemployed and increases their incomernand consumption.rnThe purpose of this paper was to bring to light one of the major prerequisites, namely access tornfinance aspects, of the small scale enterprises which are foundation in accelerating economicrngrowth. The main objective of the paper is to identify the challenges that small businesses inrnAddis Ababa (selected sub cities) face in accessing finance from financial institution throughrnidentifying the dominant means of financing small businesses and factors influence the extent ofrnaccessing finance. The study was conducted by taking into account the demand side aspect.rnThe most pressing problem identified, from response of small businesses and from responsiblernofficers interviewed, was accessing fund to finance working capital and in fixed investment. Thernbasic factors aggravated the problem for small business are loan covenants need by financialrninstitution, lack of collateral, level of cost of financing and availability of other financingrninstruments. In addition; as it was confirmed from the research, luck of credit history with thernfinancial institutions, willingness of banks and suppliers to provide credit and the firmâ€™s specificrnoutlook about sales and profitability have contributed to the problem.rnKey words: Access to finance, Small business enterprises