This study revealed the effects of effective management of WC on the financial
performance of listed SMEs in Nigeria. The data for the study was spawned from the annual
reports published by the listed SMEs in Nigeria. The proxy for the dependent variable is
profit after tax (PAT) while that of the independent variables includes; inventories, trade and
other receivables, gross profit and monetary policy rates. There are Nine (9) listed SMEs on
the Alternative Security Markets (ASeM) while 5 were sampled by adopting the scientific
random sampling technique. The study made use of panel regression analysis to empirically
unravel the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable of SMEs under
study for seven years spanning from 2012 to 2018. It was revealed that positive but
insignificant relationship exist between the dependent variable and three (3) independent
variables, only trade and other receivables (TOR) were significantly and negatively related
to the dependent variable. Thus, the recommendation that the Nigerian government should
revisit the interest rate on SMEs loans to enhance accessibility and affordability which in the
long run promotes the development of the sector and the nation at large