The contribution of incubation programmes to youth employment creation: a case of Sokoine university graduates entrepreneurs cooperative, Morogoro, Tanzania
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Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Globally, youth employment is a major issue with remarkable differences within regions
and Tanzania is among the Sub-Saharan African countries facing youth unemployment.
However, at times it is claimed that the youth are to be blamed for being lazy and less
creative. But in reality, the youth are willing to work if a conducive environment is
created to make them work or be innovative. Generally, incubation programmes are
identified as sources of employment creation, wealth generation at local and national level
and reduction of poverty in general. Incubation programmes generate a conducive
environment for entrepreneurs at the early stage of lunching a venture by helping an
entrepreneur reduce costs associated with starting a business venture. In addition,
incubation increases confidence and capacity and linking the entrepreneur to the resources
required to start an enterprise. Sokoine University Graduates Entrepreneurs Cooperative
(SUGECO) is one of the incubation Programmes which offers selected participants an
exciting opportunity to be mentored through the Youth Entrepreneur Incubation program
located at Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro. Therefore, the study aimed at
evaluating how the SUGECO Incubation programme has been successful in enabling its
incubatees not only to be self-employed but, also create employment for others. The study
adopted a cross-sectional research design and a mixed methods approach whereby both
quantitative and qualitative data were collected from SUGECO incubation center and its
incubatees. A total of 88 respondents from SUGECO participated in the study, 43 males
and 45 females. Primary data were collected using a questionnaire and in-depth
interviews. Data collected through the questionnaire was coded and analyzed using IBM
SPSS whereby descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were determined. Generally,
study findings show that SUGECO supports young entrepreneur’s development and job
creation in Tanzania. In addition, SUGECO transforms the minds of the youth using a
business model that activates their innovative behavior, thus, making them more creative
and entrepreneurial which in turn stimulate agribusiness development and creation of
employment. The findings also show that SUGECO offers a variety of trainings which
equip the incubatees with business management and employment skills. However,
findings also show that SUGECO faces a number of challenges which include inadequate
funding, lack of commitment among the incubatees, unsupportive government policies,
quality of entrepreneurs and location specific challenges. Furthermore, binary logistic
regression results show that out of the nine independent variables entered into the model
only two variables i.e marital status and being trained in agribusiness were significantly
(P≤ 0.05) associated with youth employment creation. Nonetheless, findings show that
the graduates faced some challenges, the critical being lack of start-up capital.
Other challenges faced are poor commitment, inadequate market access, insufficient
working equipment and poor infrastructure, lack of confidence and patience, land access
and poor supervision and coaching. Therefore, it is recommended that SUGECO adheres
to its predefined criteria when selecting incubatees so as to recruit only the committed
ones. In addition, the Government of Tanzania and Non-Governmental organizations such
as should collaborate and place more support to promote SUGECO Agribusiness
Incubation programme as it has show the potential for youth’s employment creation and
poverty reduction.
Description
Masters Dissertation
Keywords
Incubation programmes, Youth employment creation, Entrepreneurs cooperative, Morogoro, Tanzania