| dc.description.abstract | This study vets out to investigate the influence of Youth Enterprise Development Fund on performance of Youth Business Enterprises in Kitui Central District, Kitui County, Kenya. This study was guided by following the objectives: To establish how utilization of Youth Enterprise Development Fund loan influences the performance of Youth Business Enterprises; to explore how training about the Youth Enterprise Development Fund loan influences the performance of Youth Business Enterprises; to determine the extent to which access to Youth Enterprise Development Fund influences performance of Youth Business Enterprises; to establish how educational levels and Youth Enterprise Development Fund influences the performance of Youth Business Enterprises; and to establish how adequacy of Youth Enterprise Development Fund influences the performance of Youth Business Enterprises in Kitui Central District, Kitui County.
Descriptive survey research design was used in a quantitative research approach for this study. This study targets all 99 Youth Groups in Kitui Central District. Simple random sampling was used to select 30% of the Youth Groups giving a sample size of 30 Youth Groups. Thus, a sample size of 30% of the target population was adequately representative of the study population because the target population is small. A questionnaire with closed-ended items only was used. The questionnaire items was five-point likert rating scale of the range of (1-5 for example I-strongly agree; 2-agree; 3-undecided; 4-disagree; 5-strongly disagree).
A research authorisation permit was obtained from the District Education Officer-Kitui Central and a copy given to District Youth Officer-Kitui Central to allow the study to be conducted in the district. Informed consent for participation was sought by asking for the respondent's permission before administering the questionnaire to the sampled Youth in the study. Questionnaire was administered personally, with the help of two research assistants by the researcher to the selected Youth who filled in the data and then collect the filled in questionnaire before leaving each of the selected Youth group participants.
Data was analysed using descriptive statistics that involved frequency distributions, percentages and average values. Standard deviation value for research question (v) was calculated to compare the variability of responses across the entire sampled Youth group officials. The findings were presented in frequency distribution tables, mean and standard deviation values followed by explanations of the study results per table.
This study concuded that there were poor utilization of YEDF loans, training about YEDF, access to YEDF loans, youth educational levels and adequacy of YEDF allocations among the youth groups which negatively influenced the performance of Youth Business Enterprises in Kitui Central District. It was recommended that the utilization of YEDF loan skills, training about YEDF seminars/workshops, access to YEDF loan among the youth, youth educational levels, and adequacy of YEDF allocations needed to be beefed up to enhance improvement in the performance of Youth Business Enterprises. Finally the suggestions for further related studies on the creation of youth employment opportunities through the State initiative in providing Youth Enterprise Development Fund loan facilities were also recommended in this
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