Linking Youth to Entrepreneurship and Resources
Youth entrepreneurship is very attractive to policy makers because of its mandate in promoting self-employment, self-reliance, and youth independence. An entrepreneur is a person who produces for the market through organising, operating and assuming the risk of starting a new business venture (Kahan 2012). Entrepreneurship is narrowly defined as the act of creating new business firms and is taken to be a key factor in creating social and economic mobility (Castellani and Lora 2014:3; Ellis and Williams 2011:9). Moreover, entrepreneurship is presented as a key process through which economy is advanced, by organising resources (Stevenson 1983:2) and production of goods and services (to those who can pay for it) and rewarding participants (Schumpeter 2012 [1934]). Young entrepreneurs identify available opportunities and exploit them to produce goods and services. Youth entrepreneurship creates self-employment and employment, through new ventures, expansion of existing ones and increase in social wealth (Ogbueghu et al. 2020:73). Many studies have emphasised promotion of entrepreneurship as an engine for youth innovation, job creation, socio-economic change and solution to youth poverty (Awasthi et al. 2006; Gupta et al. 2009; Chaudhary 2017; Setti 2017). The perceived role of entrepreneurship for economic growth and development in developed economies such as Britain, USA, Japan, and Canada has encouraged most developing countries to adopt a concept of enterprise development to deal with youth economic problems (Moa-Liberty et al. 2016:65), evidenced in Youth Enterprise Development and Youth Venture Capital Funding in Kenya and Uganda respectively. Youth entrepreneurship has become a catch word and a policy discourse for most Sub-Saharan African governments (Macdonald et al. 2023:287). Whether for economic prosperity or political gains, youth entrepreneurship continues to be seen as a suitable solution for unemployment. Leveraging on available resources for entrepreneurial success is a fundamental consideration in most entrepreneurship training and skills development aimed at ensuring constant innovation and improvement (Ogbueghu et al. 2020:73).
Factors facilitating youth engagement in entrepreneurship include psycho-social elements such as status and self-efficacy, demographics, cultural factors, and resources (Moa-Liberty 2016:66; Soomro et al. 2019. Setti (2017) specifies personal attributes mattering for entrepreneurial aspiration and intention including age, education, gender, competences, and motivation. Such attributes form the resource base that is conceptualised in this study as ‘personal resources’.
Resource availability can trigger socio-economic development; however, existence of resources in Sub-Saharan Africa has not transformed into youth employment (Ackah-Baido 2016). The presence of land as a resource has failed to create jobs for swelling numbers of unskilled and skilled youth. In northern Uganda, fertile and unopened land is a potential for agriculture and youth agro-entrepreneurship (Mugonola and Baliddawa 2014:123). Although land is available, it is not always accessible. Studies indicate that limited access to land constrains youth participation in investment on land (Gichimu and Njeru 2014:3; Ayai 2013:9). Issues of family/clan land associated with land wrangles affect youth decisions on utilisation. Fletschner and Kenney, cited in Gichimu and Njeru (2014:4), found that in Kenya most female youth lack land titles and control over land, and inherit small plots, which cannot stir huge investments.
In contrast, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) presents lack of capital, skills, and support and market opportunities as major challenges to youth entrepreneurship. Most young entrepreneurs in Benin, Liberia, Malawi and Togo consider lack of access to finance as a principal challenge to start-ups and entrepreneurial progress (De Gobbi 2014:310). Poor access to credit affects youth attitudes towards start-ups and entrepreneurship. Youth cannot adopt the technology required to exploit available opportunities. Many youths do not possess collateral to access microcredit and commercial loans, hence are not able to establish enterprises. Therefore, even if resources are present, youth are not in position to adopt modern technology, and expand enterprises. Lack of land ownership and access is challenging most youth enterprises. Youth cannot pledge land as collateral security to acquire loans from microfinance institutions. Youth continuously lack credit and capital (Dixon 2021:34), and this challenges ability to utilise available resources such as land, and personal energy. This means that provision of capital would facilitate exploitation of other resources for self-employment.