| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of management practices on
repayment of the youth enterprise fund loans among youth groups in Limuru Sub-county.
The following objectives guided the study; to examine the influence of group leadership
styles; to establish the influence of youth group management’s financial literacy; to
establish the influence of the group members’ business experience and to investigate how
corporate governance in the youth enterprises influences the loan repayment. This study
was guided by the contract theory and the group loan repayment models. This study used
descriptive survey research design. The target population was individuals within youth
groups with access to Youth Enterprise development Fund in Limuru Sub-county during
the period 2007/2008 to September 2012. Stratified Random sampling was used to select
the youths. Simple random sampling was used to select the stratums’ to study as well as
the youth within the youth groups to sample. Primary quantitative data was collected from
the youth using a semi-structured questionnaire. A pilot study/ pre-testing of the
questionnaire was administered to a small sample of the youths (10% of respondents) and
research experts and professionals in the areas of micro-enterprise funding, more
specifically youth funding so as to assess the capability of the survey instruments to
collect the required data for the survey. Validity of the questionnaires was tested using
test-retest technique with a correlation coefficient of 0.8 hence the instruments were
reliable. All the quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS, Ms Excel and related
software. The findings were presented using tables and charts, percentages, tabulations,
frequencies and means. Analyzing the qualitative data involved content analysis by
reading through the interview or focus group transcripts and other data, developing codes,
coding the data, and drawing connections between discrete pieces of data. The following
were the findings of the study, the study revealed that 47.5% of the respondents were
involved and 86.0% of the respondents were satisfied with the group leadership hence
influencing loan repayment. The study revealed that half of the respondents were helped
by the financial management training received by some group members and 59.3% of the
respondents did not feel helped by the members with financial management experience.
The study established that (42.3%) respondents had business experience of 5-8years. On
the effect of corporate governance, 46.6% of the respondents said the group members
were highly involved in management of the group. The study established that majority of
the respondents 83.9% had gotten a loan. The following conclusions were drawn; a
majority of the members were involved in the decisions making with their groups, hence
had a positive attitude towards the group leadership. Financial literacy on loan repayment
was very important. Respondents with business experience mentored those who did not
have any experience in making informed decisions. Cooperate governance is very
important in all that people do this helps groups to evaluate their leaders and decision on
wise investment. The groups should be encouraged to make their loan repayment in order
to get more money from the government encouraging them to grow further. The
following recommendations were made, funds management needs to make it clear that
the members of the groups need to be adequately involved in making of the group
decisions; government through its officers in the YEDF should consider making financial
management training provisions to the groups in the initial stages before the disbursement
of the loan monies. Training in the development should be conducted for all the groups.
Ministry employees should be trained on the required skills of micro-credit while a
regular capacity building among the youths should be affected so as to empower them. | en_US |
