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Tactical Skills and Transformation of Emergent
Youth Business Ventures: An Implication for
Repayment of Constituency Youth Enterprise
Scheme Loans(C-Yes) in Kitui County, Kenya
By
Mulwa, Kyalo, Matula, Ndaita
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The contribution of emergent entrepreneurs to
the national economy cannot be
underestimated.
They form the basis of what eventually would
become big businesses.
Individuals have given self confession of how they
started businesses from a very humble beginning
with very small capital(100/=).
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Such businesses grew to high capital of
several thousands (10,000) and even to
employ a number of employees (10).
It is only recently that the area of
emergent entrepreneurs has attracted the
attention of researchers and the
government.
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Studies have shown that:
The needs of emergent entrepreneurs aged 26
years and above are largely different from those
of lower categories of youth proprietors.
The major challenge facing these young adults
is to transform their enterprises into
commercially viable and competitive small
businesses(Chigunta,2001).
 Operating in low income
markets,
 Running enterprises that may
not be growing,
 Low transition rate to the formal
sector.
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The Kenya Government established the
Youth Enterprise Development Fund in
the year 2006 as an intervention to
address youth unemployment through
provision of loans to start, revive or
expand the existing youth owned
businesses.
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The Youth Enterprise Development Fund
together with other government enterprise
allowance schemes aim at combating high
levels of youth unemployment by facilitating
transition from unemployment and thus
contributing to the creation of an enterprise
culture (Amenya, 2011)
Hence a road map towards achieving the
Millennium Development Goals.
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The fund was created as a revolving
instrument and, therefore, depends on
repayment in order to be able to continue
lending Six years after its establishment.
Most youth groups have failed to repay the
loans in full and unemployment has escalated
from 62% to 65% (Margret, 2010).
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Literature has revealed that loan repayment is
very low in Kitui County thus posing a serious
threat to the survival and success of these
business ventures.
This article is based on empirical research on
the tactical skills that influence the
transformation of emergent youth owned
businesses in Kitui County
Therefore, loan default remains a challenge.
This calls for quick intervention in terms of
research on to root cause of this anomaly that
poses a threat to youth empowerment in Kitui
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1. To establish the extent to which leadership of the
group influences the transformation of youth business
ventures and its implication on the repayment of C- YES
loans among youth groups.
2. To establish the influence of group members capacity
to plan on the transformation of youth business
ventures and its implication on the repayment of CYES loans among youth groups.
3. To establish the influence training on business skills
on the transformation of youth business ventures and
its implication on the repayment of C- YES loans among
youth groups.
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1. H1: Leadership of the group significantly influences
the transformation of youth business ventures and its
implication on the repayment of C- YES funded loans
among youth groups.
2. H1: Group members capacity to plan has significant
the transformation of youth business ventures and its
implication on the repayment of C- YES funded loans
among youth groups.
3. H1: Training on business skills significantly influences
the transformation of youth business ventures and its
implication on the repayment of C- YES funded loans
among youth groups.
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The study adopted descriptive crosssectional sample survey design.
systematic sampling procedure was used
to select 30 groups from the target
population of 99 youth groups who
benefited from the C-yes loans in the
previous three years in the constituency.
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Data collection was done by use of a
questionnaire.
Split-half approach was used to test the
reliability of the questionnaire and a
correlation coefficient of 0.7 obtained and
accepted as adequate for the study.
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Data was analyzed using both descriptive and
inferential statistics using the statistical
package for social sciences (SPSS).
Hypotheses were tested using Pearson's
correlation coefficient.
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The study involved 50 respondents in which 72%
were male while 28% were female.
There seem to be no gender balance in the
respondent’s distribution.
The respondents belonged to groups of sizes
ranging from 10 to 20 members.
Among the groups, 70% had operated for 4-8
years while 30% had operated for 1-3 years
This objective was measured through four key
indicators including:
 Business communication skills
 Documentation of records
 Marketing skills
 Business ethics
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The respondents indicated in a five point likert
scale the extent to which these indicators enhanced
or undermined the transformation of their business
ventures and hence their ability to repay the c-yes
loans
SA%
lack
of
training
on
business
communication
skills
limits
the
transformation of my business making it 40
difficult for me to repay the C-YES loans.
I have limited skills in keeping records of
my
business
documents
which
undermines the expansion of my business 20
hence inability to repay the C-YES loans.
I need improved Marketing skills to
expand my business for easy repayment
of C-YES loans
24
Application of business ethics has been a
challenge to me in effort to sustain my
business and be able to repay C-YES 20
loans
A%
UD %
D%
SD % Total
100
20
20
20
0
100
32
20
8
0
100
40
20
16
0
100
38
28
14
0
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This objective was measured by three key
indicators including;
 team building,
 conflict resolution approaches
 participatory decision making.
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The respondents were required to fill a 5-point
likert scale indicating the extent to which they
agreed with the given statements. The
responses are presented in Table 2
Factor
SA%
A%
D%
SD %
U%
Total/
%
Participatory decision making 60
40
0
0
0
100
Conflict resolution approaches 50
50
0
0
0
100
Team building
50
4
0
0
100
in the group
46
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The respondents revealed that their ability to
repay C-YES loans depended on the
transformation of the business ventures among
the C-yes funded youth groups.
All the tactical skills for business
transformation related to leadership were seen
to be important in the transformation of the
business.
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Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient was used
to determine the strength of relationship
between leadership of the group and
transformation of the business ventures
among the C-yes funded youth groups.
This was done by testing the Null
hypothesis as presented in Table 3
Group leadership
Group leadership
Transformation
loans
Pearson Correlation 1
0.80(*)
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.0684
N
50
Transformation of Pearson Correlation 0.80(*)
YES loans
Sig. (2-tailed)
0.0684
N
50
1
50
of
YES
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Table 3 shows that the correlation between group
leadership and transformation of the business
ventures among the C-yes funded youth groups is
0.80(*).
This shows that there is a significant relationship at
99% confidence level, between group leadership and
Transformation of emergent business ventures and its
implication on the repayment of YES loans among the
C-yes funded
constituency.
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youth
groups
in
Kitui
central
We therefore reject the hypothesis that there is no
significant relationship between group leadership
and repayment of YES loans among the C-yes
funded youth groups in Kitui central constituency.
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This objective sought to assess the influence of
capacity to plan on Transformation of
emergent business ventures and its implication
on the
Respondents were required to rate the factors
resulting to low constituency youth enterprise
scheme loan repayment by filling a 5-likert
scale concerning enterprise growth and loan
repayment
Factor
SA
A
D
SD
U
Total/
%
a)
Conceptualization
business plan
of
40
40
20
0
0
100
b)
Development of business
70
plan
30
0
0
0
100
c)
Operationalization
business plan
40
4
0
0
100
of
56
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Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient to determine
analyze H0: There is no significant relationship
between capacity to plan and transformation
of business ventures and its implication on
repayment of C-YES loans among the c-yes
funded youth groups in Kitui central
constituency.
Capacity to plan a Pearson
business
Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Transformation of Pearson
business ventures Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Capacity to plan a Transformation of
business
business ventures
1
0.78(*)
0.074
50
50
0.78(*)
1
0.074
50
50
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Correlation between capacity to plan and transformation
of business ventures repayment of C-YES loans among
the c-yes funded youth groups in Kitui central
constituency is 0.78.
This shows that there is a very strong relationship
between capacity to plan and transformation of business
ventures and its implication on repayment of C-YES
loans among the c-yes funded youth groups in Kitui
central constituency.
We therefore reject the hypothesis that there is no
significant relationship between capacity to plan and
transformation of business ventures repayment of C-YES
loans among the c-yes funded youth groups in Kitui
central constituency.
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Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient to determine
the relationship between enterprise growth and
repayment of C-YES loans among the C-yes
funded youth groups in Kitui central
constituency. This was done by testing the
hypothesis;
H0: There is no significant relationship between
enterprise growth and repayment of YES loans
among the C-yes funded youth groups in Kitui
central constituency
Training on Business Pearson Correlation
skills
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Repayment of YES Pearson Correlation
loans
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Training
Business skills
1
on Repayment
YEDF loans
0.72(*)
0.064
50
50
0.72(*)
1
0.064
50
50
of
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Table 6 shows that the correlation between enterprise
growth and repayment of YES loans among the C-yes
funded youth groups in Kitui central constituency is 0.72
(*).
This shows that there is a significant relationship between
enterprise growth and repayment of YES loans among the
C-yes funded youth groups in Kitui central constituency.
We therefore reject the hypothesis that there is no
significant relationship between enterprise growth and
repayment of YES loans among the C-yes funded youth
groups in Kitui central constituency and conclude that the
repayment of YES loans among the C-yes funded youth
groups defends on the growth of the enterprise.
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County governments should equip the youth
with skills on leadership, capacity building
and business management in order to sustain
their businesses and improve on the
repayment of C-YES loans and remain in
employment.
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The government should set aside money for
training the youth groups on investment skills,
budgeting, and recording as well as pro-longing
the loan repayment period to enable the youth
nurture their business ventures to grow to the
level of repaying the loans without collapsing the
businesses.
This will enable the youth to remain in self
employment which is the basic objective of
Youth Enterprise Development Fund.
 Thank
you!