This study examines financial literacy and its relationship with the performance of small-business owners/entrepreneurs in Nigeria. For empirical purposes, the performance of small-business owners/entrepreneurs is operationalized as the perceived performance of the businesses they own or manage, rather than as personal job performance. The study also examines whether financial management practices statistically mediate the financial-literacy-performance relationship and whether digital financial capability is directly associated with performance or moderates the financial-management-practice-performance association. A cross-sectional survey was administered through Google Forms between June and August 2026. Of 605 questionnaire links distributed, 503 completed questionnaires were returned; three were excluded during screening, yielding 500 usable responses from key financial decision-makers in six selected locations representing Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Owner-level respondents accounted for 92.8% of the analytical sample, while 7.2% were financially responsible managers. Reflective Mode-A partial least squares path modeling and 5,000 nonparametric bootstrap resamples were used. Financial literacy was positively associated with perceived business performance (β = 0.236, p < .001) and financial management practices (β = 0.480, p < .001). Financial management practices were positively associated with performance (β = 0.293, p < .001), and the bootstrapped financial-literacy → financial-management-practices → performance indirect path was significant (β = 0.141, 95% CI [0.099, 0.187]), a pattern consistent with complementary partial statistical mediation. Digital financial capability also showed a positive direct association with performance (β = 0.162, p < .001). However, the financial-management-practices × digital-financial-capability interaction was not significant (β = 0.049, p = .164), and the index of moderated mediation was likewise nonsignificant (index = 0.023, 95% CI [-0.010, 0.056]). The findings indicate that financial literacy is positively associated with the performance of the sampled businesses, partly through financial-management routines, while digital financial capability operates primarily as an additive capability rather than a statistically established multiplier of those routines. Because the design is cross-sectional, the findings should be interpreted as statistical relationships rather than evidence of causal impact.

Keywords: financial literacy; small-business owners; entrepreneurs; business performance; financial management practices; digital financial capability; micro and small businesses; Nigeria; PLS path modeling.