dc.description.abstract | Youth unemployment is a pervasive problem. A number of countries faced with similar challenges
have developed and implemented various labour market programs and interventions aimed at
redressing the youth employment problem. One of the comprehensive surveys of interventions to
address youth employment is provided by Betcherman, et al. (2007) and Puerto (2007). This study
sought to examine the influence of financial education on business growth among youth groups in
Homa-Bay district, Homa-Bay County. The study was guided by these research objectives; to assess
the influence of entrepreneurship information on business growth; to determine the extent to which
financial access influences business growth; to establish the extent to which debt management
influences business growth; to investigate the influence of savings on business growth and to
examine the extent to which business development services influences business growth among youth
groups in Homa-Bay district, Homa-Bay County. The study evaluated five hypotheses; HOI: There is
no significant relationship between entrepreneurship information and and business growth among
youth groups in Homa Bay district, Homa-Bay County; H02: There is no significant relationship
between financial access and business growth among youth groups in Homa Bay district, Homa-Bay
County; H03: There is no significant relationship between debt management and business growth
among youth groups in Homa Bay district, Homa-Bay County; H04: There is no significant
relationship between savings and business growth among youth groups in Homa Bay district, Homa-
Bay County and Ho-: There is no significant relationship between business development services and
business growth among youth groups in Homa Bay district, Horna-Bay County. The study adopted
the descriptive survey design where qualitative and quantitative data was collected. The study
population was 54; consisting of 54 youth members drawn from 35 youth groups sampled using
stratified sampling from the 4 divisions in the district. Data was collected using questionnaires with
structured and unstructured questions and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences v16
(SPSS) and Chi-Square was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study indicated that
financial education program influenced business growth among youth groups. To up scale this
venture, any financial education program needs to be boosted where possible. The study therefore
advocates for harnessing stakeholders resources in order to augment efforts made by the FIKA
program on business growth fully feasible in the short term. The study contributed to the body of
Knowledge by linking financial education to business growth with special focus on youth groups,
this would help review, propose sound ideas and inform a possible scale-up for adoption in the
purview of integrating youth financial literacy education levels into the financial world. The study
recommends that the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in liaison with the Ministry of Education
should develop and implement a comprehensive curriculum on entrepreneurship education training
which should be integrated into the school curriculum at all levels from kindergarten to university, so
as to build a strong entrepreneurial culture early enough in our youth. Another comprehensive
curriculum for out of school youth involved in entrepreneurship should be developed and be rolled
out periodically and in known phases by stakeholders to avoid ad hoc and amorphous 1 to 2 days
trainings. Further research can carried out through a comparative study to assess the difference in
business performance on the youths funded by financial institutions and the youths funded by YEDF
in Homa-Bay district and a study may also be undertaken to examine the influence of market
opportunities/technical assistance on business performance among youths in Homa-Bay district,
Homa-Bay County. | en_US |