Entrepreneurship Development Programme: Intervention Mechanism in Agriculture for Youth Unemployment in Abia State, Nigeria

摘要

The study assessed the entrepreneurship development programme as an intervention mechanism in Agriculture for youth unemployment in Abia state, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio economic characteristics of respondents; assess the level of participation of youth in entrepreneurship development programme, determine factors that influence the youth entrepreneurship programme of youth. A random sample of 120 respondents was selected using a well structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential (probit) statistics. Findings indicated that male youths participated (56.7%) most in entrepreneurship development programmes. Youths in Abia state participated mostly (53.4%) in the entrepreneurship development programme known as "Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOUWIN). Access to loan after completion of their entrepreneurship development programme by the youth participants is limited (53.7%). The level of participation of the youths in entrepreneurship development programme is moderately high (58.7%). Level of education (4.060), youth's interest in entrepreneurial jobs (5.782), youths experience in technical skill (2.991), easy access to loans among the youths (5.252) youth awareness of job opening in their areas (5.948) lack of infrastructural facilities (3.793), rapid expansion of educational system (2.72) and awareness of entrepreneurship development programme(6.621) significantly influenced the involvement of youths in entrepreneurship development programme. It is therefore recommended that efforts be made to enrich the content of the entrepreneurship development programme with practical steps to start-up various agricultural enterprise as this will complement the experience of the youths and also increase food production, and access to loan after completion of their entrepreneurship development programme by the youth participants should be enhanced as this will help the youth to practise the skills they acquired from entrepreneurship development programme and be able to create their own jobs and even be able to employ others among others.