International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VI, June 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Determining Factors That Improve Youths’ Economic Empowerment in Katsina State, Nigeria
Bashir Kurfi Babangida*, Barjoyai Bardai*
*Faculty of Finance & Administrative Science
Al-Madinah International University, Malaysia.
Abstract: Suffice it to say, that the government poverty alleviation and empowerment programmes are unsustainable, and formal financial institutions such as commercial banks are incapable of combating and reducing poverty, particularly among the Youths, as evidenced by the failure of several programmes and schemes to produce the expected results, despite government efforts to improve the standard of living of its citizens. Notwithstanding, Katsina state remains among the states with higher poverty rate, with the highest underemployment/unemployment rate. Which stemmed the incidences of violent crimes in the area. This serves as the motivation of the study to identify other factors that may be effective in empowering the Youths economically. To achieve the goals, the study employs a quantitative approach through structured questionnaire. The study samples were selected using a multistage sampling technique from microfinance services Youths’ beneficiaries in Katsina state, Nigeria. The result revealed that the variables that represented the main determinant of economic empowerment in the study; microcredit, micro-savings, financial training, and advisory services interacted positively which implies positive linear relationship with economic empowerment. The study suggests that MFBs should make microcredit more attainable to their youth clients to effectively fulfil their mission of empowering youth economically. Microfinance banks should be recognised as poor people’s banks, with one-digit loan rates. The Nigerian Central Bank should provide MFIs with adequate policy guidance in order to deliver Youths-friendly financial services. The outcomes of this research would be relevant to policy issues specifically the regulators such as the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Keywords: Microcredit, micro-savings, financial training, advisory services, and economic empowerment.
I.INTRODUCTION
Development cannot be achieved in any society without a well-focused policy for empowering Youths and alleviating poverty, by grooming the young populace to become more productive through enhancing their capacity to explore components of production, particularly micro-credit, micro-savings, financial training, and advisory services. The momentous poverty-stricken populace can be significantly excelled by offering resources to enable them to participate in diverse financial, competitive, and lucrative activities and become more autonomous, add to job opportunities, boost family income, create wealth and generate wealth for the economy. In the last 30 years, microfinance has become the most remarkable accomplishment within developing countries and is widely recognized as an urgent and continuous way out of poverty alleviation worldwide (Okafor, 2017)