Determinants of effectiveness of youth enterprise development fund in Gilgil sub-county, Nakuru county, Kenya

Abstract

Unemployment is a big challenge to the governments across the globe with developing countries being affected most. The youths are the major victims of unemployment hence; governments, public benefit organizations, and the civil society continue to struggle in developing policies that will help alleviate this problem. Various countries have devised mechanisms to enable them address youth unemployment that include initiation of a Youth Fund to offer credit to the youth. The main purpose of this study was to establish the determinants of effectiveness of Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Nakuru County.The geographical area of the study was Gilgil Sub-county, in Nakuru County. The study used descriptive survey design which was preferred for its effectiveness in describing situations as they are. A sampling frame of 92 respondents was obtained from which a sample size of 60 youth groups was randomly selected. The researcher obtained a complete list of groups and leaders from the Youth Development Officer in Gilgil Sub-county and used simple random sampling to select the sample size. Data collection was done by use of a questionnaire which contained both open – ended and close – ended questions. The data collected was coded and analysed using both qualitative and quantitative data analysis tools. The Ms Excelsoftware was used to analyse all closed ended items whereas the open – ended items were analysed through descriptive analysis. The research findings showed that majority of the youths engage in service (32.56%) and retail business (41.86%). Many of the youths accessing the YEDF have secondary education at (44.18 %) and only 4.66% graduates have accessed the loans. The youth groups have not been trained on financial management with only 23.25% having been trained of these 91.86% were trained after receiving the loans. The study showed that monitoring and Youth officers had not emphasized evaluation of youth projects with 47.68% indicating that they had not been visited youth officers. The study conclude that the Fund was not achieving the goal of creating employment for the youth and as such is not empowering them as it should. The study recommends that youth be trained on financial management before receiving loans, youth to be assisted to design self-sustainable projects, monitoring, and evaluation to be improved. Further research should be carried out to establish how the fund could be made more beneficial especially to females.