An Investigation Into Constraints Impacting on Youth Access to Finance From Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Kenya: A Survey of Selected Yedf Beneficiaries in Murang’a County

Abstract

Unemployment has become the biggest macroeconomic concern for most developing countries and this was made worse by the global financial crisis of 2008. Governments have tried to come up with various innovative methods to stem it and one such initiative of the government of Kenya was the establishment of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund focused at alleviating unemployment among individuals aged between 18-35 years. This research aimed at finding out what are the external, institutional and internal factors impacting on youth access to finance from YEDF in Kenya with a special reference to Murang’a County. The research used questionnaires as data collection instruments. The population of the study was 567 respondents from which a sample of 60 respondents was selected. The data collected was analyzed quantitatively using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) and presented using frequency tables, histograms and pie charts. Out of 60 questionnaires administered, 50 were returned and analysed. The study found that of the three areas under study internal factors had the most impact on youth access to funding from YEDF. On internal factors education, prior experience and business plans were cited to have major impact on access to finances. While external factors like taxation and political interference had little or no impact, with length of loan application form as an institutional factors having the biggest impact.