Effect of government initiatives on youth entrepreneurship performance in Nairobi County
Date
2025
Authors
Chepkemboi, I. T.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
The main objective of the research was to determine the effect of government initiatives on youth entrepreneurship in Nairobi County, Kenya. The specific objectives were; to establish the effect of entrepreneurship education programs on youth entrepreneurship performance, analyze the effect of government policies on youth entrepreneurship performance establish the effect of access to finance on youth entrepreneurship performance and evaluate how market opportunities moderate the relationship between venture products, product development, and youth entrepreneurship performance in Nairobi County. To expound on the literature, resource-based firm theory and opportunity-based entrepreneurship theory were adopted and the research was pivoted on a positivist research philosophy. The researcher used a descriptive research design and stratified random sampling to select a sample of 305 respondents who took part in the study out of a total population of 1,251 traders as indicated by the city hall licensing office. Primary data and data collection were conducted through self-administered questionnaires. A pilot test was done to check for data validity and reliability and finally, the data collected was analyzed and presented in the form of means and standard deviations using tables. This entailed distributing 15 questionnaires randomly to the Kamukunji market different from Gikomba. Study findings indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between government initiatives which include entrepreneurship education programs, government policies and access to finance and youth entrepreneurship performance. The study concludes that with improvements in finance, skills, and regulations, Kenya's youth entrepreneurship initiatives can drive economic growth. The study thus recommends that tertiary education should not just be about skills but rather, value-added skills through blended entrepreneurship knowledge to promote self-employment among youths. Second, the issue of policies should not be a blanket for all entrepreneurship. Exemption and grace periods should be adopted for new youth-owned businesses to favour their growth. Lastly, even though the government has elaborate funding for the youth, the bureaucracies and legal requirements, its inaccessibility and lack of awareness should be reviewed to promote loan uptake. This study has addressed the issue of the effect of government initiatives on youth entrepreneurship performance and suggests a study on measures of the sustainability of these youth-owned businesses to ensure that they dependably contribute to national economic GDP and at the same time create additional employment.
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Full - text thesis
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Citation
Chepkemboi, I. T. (2025). Effect of government initiatives on youth entrepreneurship performance in Nairobi County [Strathmore University]. http://hdl.handle.net/11071/16042