| dc.description.abstract | Youth entrepreneurship is a pet subject in the world today. Indeed the global focus on employment and wealth creation is the continued development of small and medium enterprises sector (SMEs) which forms the core of entrepreneurship. One of the biggest challenges facing the youth entrepreneurs is lack of start-up capital. To address this problem the Government of Kenya created youth enterprise development fund kitty in June, 2006. The funds main objective is to promote all forms of youth owned enterprises. However a close look at the Constituency Youth Enterprise Scheme (C-YES) loan component which is administered by the Youth Enterprise Development Fund, directly to the youth through the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports shows that it has not lived to this billing.
According to Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) status report for November, (2011), the fund allocated Kenya Shillings 1,569,024,740 for lending to the youth through Constituency Youth Enterprise Scheme (C-YES) country wide. Out of this a total of Ksh 602,642,163.9 was disbursed to 13,087 youth groups representing 38.41 percent. The recovery rate for these loans stands at 32.76 percent. Nyeri County, received a total of Ksh 42,301,230, and Ksh, 16,433,870 was disbursed to 326 youth groups, representing 38.85 percent. The recovery rate of the loans stands at 33.08 percent.
Kieni constituency received Ksh 6,871,134 and disbursed Ksh 3,733,200 to 71 youth groups. This represents 54.33 per cent and the repayment rate stands at 25.25 per cent. This analysis shows a clear pattern of low uptake and repayment of Youth Fund all over Kenya. This could be an indicator of serious challenges that require a study to bring them to light. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the uptake of Youth Enterprise Development Fund, in Kieni East District.
The main objectives of this study were, to establish to which extent the level of education, attitude of the youth towards loans, political leadership in Kieni East District, awareness and information on youth fund, and entrepreneurial skills among the youth influences the uptake of Youth Enterprise Development Fund loans. This study employed descriptive survey design. The study targeted a population of 42 youth groups from Kieni East . District who had shown interest in Youth Enterprise Development Fund. Stratified random sampling technique was used to pick 18 youth groups that were studied.
A survey questionnaire with open and close ended questions was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. It was found out that education level among the youths in Kieni East District influenced the uptake YEDF loans. The majority of those who had befitted had form four education and above. There was a positive attitude towards YEDF loans and youths were willing to take more loans in future.
The political leaders do not influence YEDF loans uptake because their input regarding YEDF loans was insignificant. Slight majority of the youth were well informed about YEDF loans. On the other hand 45 per cent said they were not well informed about the same. Entrepreneurial skills among the youth was found to influence the uptake of YEDF positively because youths with these skills are more likely to run more successful businesses which would require expansion with time hence the need for YEDF loans.
Based on the research findings, the researcher recommended that education up to form four be made compulsory for all learners to enhance their understanding of basic concepts and communication skills. Political leaders should take an initiative of popularizing YEDF to the youth. For the youth fund to benefit the youth across the board, YEDF policy should be reviewed to become more youth friendly. There should be more seminars and workshops on entrepreneurship to equip the youth with better skills to run their businesses. There is need to sensitize the majority of youth about youth fund and what it has to offer. The researcher suggested that a similar study should be carried out in other regions in Kenya. | en_US |
