Alleviating Poverty through Youth and Women Entrepreneurship Developments

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between youth and women entrepreneurship development and poverty alleviation. The study applied descriptive research design by using questionnaire and interview to collect the data from the small business owners. The study also applied Simple linear Regression model (LRM) where the variables are qualitative in nature by using dummy variables to correlate entrepreneurship development and poverty alleviation through income by using entrepreneurial training/education as independent variable and income as dependent variable. The study found a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial training/education and income generation. The study indicated holding other factors constant, the provision of entrepreneurial training increases 20.4% of the income of the entrepreneurs which leads to the poverty alleviation. The study also revealed that financial challenges, inadequate capital and lack of startup fund are the major challenges faced by the youth and women entrepreneurs. lack of entrepreneurial training, inability to distinguish between revenue and profit, lack of business strategy, lack of proper bookkeeping and inadequate market research are another major challenges faced by the small business owners who did not attend any entrepreneurial skill training and education. Lack of copyright protection is also another challenge faced by some entrepreneurs. The study concludes that the entrepreneurship development creates business opportunities and trains people with innovative enterprise skills to grasp the opportunities for starting new entrepreneurial activities, also the provision of entrepreneurial skill training increases the income of the business owners. Therefore, the study recommends that the Federal Government of Somalia Should develop SMEs Administration Centers to help and provide entrepreneurial training on youth and women. It also recommends that the Commercial Banks should establish micro-finance companies to give credits to small business owners as well as young and women entrepreneurs. The FGS also should develop copyright protection policy to protect and encourage young and women entrepreneurs.

Keywords: youth and women entrepreneurship developments, income, poverty alleviation

DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-11-05

Publication date:June 30^th 2021