| dc.description.abstract | Despite the continued increase in financial support to youth enterprises by the government and other development agents, there is still a chronic failure and collapse rate of youth projects in Kenya. The C- YES loan repayment level in Wajir East constituency was below 20 % at the time of this study. This revolving fund then faced high risks of extinction, yet it was meant to be revolving among the youth while empowering them.
The purpose of this study was to establish factors influencing the repayment of C-YES loan among the funded youth groups in Wajir East constituency. Relevant literature was reviewed especially on the background of the youth fund, various factors that influence C-YES loan repayment which included infrastructure; Entrepreneurship knowledge and skills; Cultural, political and religious beliefs and Group leadership. The study adopted a Descriptive survey design coupled with naturalistic design. A sample of 24 groups was studied, which represented 50% of the 48 funded groups in the constituency at the time of this study.
A total of 72 youth were given questionnaires to fill and one was filled by the District Youth Officer. The findings were presented by use of frequency distribution tables. The study findings showed that ASAL areas had unique challenges ranging from poor infrastructure, illiteracy and lack of entrepreneur culture, retrogressive cultural beliefs and practices and strong religious beliefs on loan interests being illegal(haram), poor leadership among youth groups. All these influenced the success of small businesses, hence leading to high default rates in loan repayment.
Based on these findings, the researcher recommended various ways to overcome the challenges and to enhance repayment of the loans. These included establishment of Iocational (grass root) coordination offices to oversee youth fund accessibility and repayment, customization of entrepreneurship trainings in order to address the actual needs of the youth in ASAL areas, Comprehensive sensitization programmes to the religious and other opinion leaders on the features of the youth fund for demystification over the interest factor and finally, that the youth should be trained on leadership skills to ensure that they choose leaders of high integrity.
Exchange programmes should be encouraged so that the youth meet and interact with others from other regions to learn some of the best practices.The researcher therefore, recommended an area for further study, based on this study'S findings. The study should be on 'the effectiveness of the C- YES fund towards transforming livelihoods of the youth in Wajir East Constituency, Kenya. | en_US |
