Promoting youth entrepreneurship in Lagos, Nigeria - SNHU ...

to foster youth entrepreneurship. They include:2.7.1 Access to Finance/Start-up FinancingThere are key factors contributory to this issue; lack of personal savings and resources,lack of knowledge of possibilities or business experience, complex documentation procedures,long waiting periods (time needed to decide on an application for funding), legal status/form ofbusiness and lack of successful micro lending. When all these combine, it makes it very hard foryouth to secure capital to start business ventures. Many turn to family and friends for support, butoften what they get is not enough to start and business venture. Not only are there few microfinanceinstitutions in many countries, but those specifically targeted at youth are even fewer. Areview of 902 organizations in 96 countries listed under the Microcredit Summit‘s Council ofPractitioners revealed only 21 organizations with ‗youth‘ in their title (Curtain,2000). Admittedly,there are credit schemes directed at young people in the mainstream microcredit organizations,but surveys reveal that youth are an underrepresented group. Lack of sufficient collateral,experience and biases further disadvantage young people.It is also important to note that many micro-credit schemes, especially youth creditschemes, have failed in many countries. The overall message from the failure of these schemessuggests that success or failure in terms of financial viability and servicing the poor, in this caseyoung people largely depends on the design of the programme (Curtain, 2000).In order to promote effective micro credit programmes, there is need both to reduce accessbarriers and design programmes that meet the needs of potential youth entrepreneurs and existingyouth run enterprises. Chigunta (2001) points out that to promote effective micro- creditprogrammes, their programmes have to meet the needs and possibilities of potential youngentrepreneurs. This requires:27