Influencing of Leadership on Financial Sustainability of Youth Group Projects Funded by Youth Enterprise Development Fund in Meru North Sub County, Meru County, Kenya
Abstract
UNICEF (2009) notes that the global economic crisis has produced a large cohort of unemployed youth,
who in 2009, stood at around 181 million worldwide. Kenyan Ministry of youth affairs was created in
December 2005 with a mandate to fully develop the potential of the youth as well as prepare and engage
them in the socio-economic development of Kenya and be self-employed. To ensure the youth get access
to cheap loans, the youth enterprise development fund was created in December 2006 through a legal
notice. Most of the youth projects funded by YEDF have low survival rates and in most cases the youths
are unable to repay the loans. Consequently, the youth continue languishing in poverty The objective of
the study was to establish the influence of leadership on financial sustainability of projects funded by
youth enterprise development fund in Meru North sub-county, Meru County, Kenya A descriptive survey
approach was adopted to obtain information concerning influence of leadership of financial sustainability
of projects funded by youth enterprise development The Target population for this study was 205
youth group leaders in Meru North sub-county that had been funded. Completed questionnaires were
edited for completeness and consistency. Data collected was coded using a predetermined coding scheme
and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The researcher used the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 17 to analyze quantitative data The result indicated that the groups had an
average current ratio of 2.1 implying that most groups were largely financially sustainable. The results
further indicated that there was a strong positive significant correlation between youth groups where youth
leaders consult group members on the running of projects funded by YEDF and current ratio (r = 0.712 at
p = 0.013). This implies that consultation in a group is vital for the sustainability of group projects