The failure rate of small medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) is very high in SouthAfrica. One of the challenges faced by SMMEs is inaccessibility to external finance. There is ageneral low level of financial literacy amongst small business owners in South Africa leading to illinformed financial decisions. Financial literacy is an important knowledge resource for financialdecision-making but little research has focused on how financial literacy affects the performance ofSMMEs. The aim of the

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... udy was to examine if financial literacy moderates the relationship betweenaccess to finance and performance of SMMEs in South Africa. The cross-sectional survey methodwas used for data collection in a quantitative study. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation andhierarchical regression were used for data analysis. The Cronbach's alpha was used as a measure ofreliability. The findings indicated that the relationship between access to finance and financial literacyis significant. The findings also showed that financial literacy moderates the relationship betweenaccess to finance and performance of SMMEs. Empirically, the study added to the body of literatureon financial literacy, access to finance and performance of SMMEs. Practically, recommendations toimprove the financial literacy of SMMEs are suggested.