Youth unemployment has become a major challenge in the 21st century and a critical concern to almost every country in the world. The general global population has continued to grow without a commensurate growth in job opportunities and the biggest casualties at the crossroads of a growing global population and the shrinking job opportunities are the youth. The rising unemployment among the youth has been cited as one of the leading causes of global insecurity and violence. There is growing consensus that entrepreneurship especially among the youth, is a very important avenue for self employment. This study focused on the effects of state micro financing support on the growth of youth enterprises in Kenya. A cross sectional survey with a descriptive research design was adopted in this study which focused on the national Youth Enterprise Development Fund, one of the outstanding interventions by the Kenya government towards encouraging and facilitating youth entrepreneurship in the country. A sample size of 272 was identified from among the 850 youth entrepreneurs who were individual YEDF beneficiaries within Meru County. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the sampled beneficiaries. Questionnaires were administered by the researcher through the YEDF Constituency Officers in the respective constituencies. Data analysis was done using multiple regression analysis to determine relationships between the dependent and independent variables. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was also used for further data analysis. The study revealed that state micro financing support is a significant factor in the growth of youth enterprises in Kenya and an increase in it leads to growth of the youth enterprises.
Youth unemployment, micro financing support, enterprise growth
