The dynamic role of Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries has been highly
emphasised. These enterprises have been identified as the means through which the rapid industrialization and
other developmental goals of these countries can be realised. This paper therefore explores the structure and extent
of value addition by women in different agro-processing units in Oyo State, Nigeria. It has also examined the
financial viability of agro-processing industries in the state. A multistage random sampling method was used to
select a sample of 160 agro-processing units of different types from each selected local government areas through
proportional allocation method. The data were analysed using descriptive (narratives), such include measures of
profitability, use of percentages, tables and mean. The break-even analysis has shown enough leverage for
processing units to stay in the business even at low capacity utilization. The extent of value addition has been about
34 per cent in the cassava mill sector. The maximum value addition has been observed in fruits/vegetable
processing (103 per cent), followed by cashew based units. The financial viability ratios computed from financial
accounts have revealed high current ratio but lower quick ratio (acid test) in most of the processing industries,
showing that many industries have substantial unsold inventories. However, financial ratios have been found
favourable for most of the processing units. There was under capacity utilization in almost all types of
processing industries in the state. It was mainly due to lack of adequate supplies of raw material as well as
bottlenecks in market penetration and marketing strategies to woo the consumers. It is revealed that break-even
output is very low hence most of the agro industries in the state were running into loss due to low capacity
utilization.