Influence of youth enterprise development fund loans on employment creation in Rongo Constituency: Migori County; Kenya
Abstract
The Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) was set up by the government in 2006, in order to enable the youth, to be able to start their own businesses in order to create self employment. In Kenya the youth comprise 70% of the country's population. Among the unemployed the youths make three quarters of those searching for employment. The situation is not different in Rongo Constituency. The purpose of this study is to establish the influence of Youth Enterprise Development Fund loans on employment creation Rongo Constituency Migori County.
The fund focuses on enterprise development as a key strategy that will increase economic opportunities for, and participation by Kenyan youth in nation building. The government of Kenya up to the financial year 2009/2010 has released a total of Ksh. 2.6 billion to the fund. This study investigated how gender, vocational training, education level and types of income generating activities the youths engage in after getting Youth Enterprise Development Fund loans impact on employment creation in Rongo Constituency. The District Youth Officer was instrumental in giving accurate information about the situation in Rongo Constituency.
In the literature review section it is noted that worldwide youth unemployment is an issue which governments the world over are trying to address. The emphasis has however changed from the traditional white collar jobs to self employment. This section recognises the youths as being part and parcel of development and solution to poverty. The theoretical framework is based on David C McClelland's Motivational Needs Theory. The research design is cross sectional research design and the study population is 528 youths in 44 youth groups. Out of this population a sample of 53 youths distributed in the youth groups were studied.
The study employed the use questionnaires to collect the data, both structured and unstructured questionnaires were used. The questionnaires were pilot tested in Uriri Constituency since it has similar demographic characteristics to Rongo Constituency. The study covered a period 3 of months. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as mean, percentages and frequency. 35 of the respondents of the study were male while 19 were female. The study found out that in most of the groups the majority of members were male.
It was also observed that 74 percent of the respondents had either gone 'through primary schools or secondary schools and 62.3 percent had undergone some form of vocational training. It was also found that the 43.4 percent of the respondents were engaged in agriculture related business while 37.7 percent were engaged in business and 18.9 percent on other income generating activities. Finally the research findings indicated that gender had some influence on the use of YEDF loans on employment creation and also that education levels influenced the use of the loan. It was also found that vocational training and income generating activities also influenced the use of YEDF loans on employment creation. The findings of this study will be of great value to the youth officers at all levels and policy makers as well as researchers.
Publisher
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Collections
- Faculty of Education (FEd) [5964]