Entrepreneurial insight of youths toward job creation arising from COVID-19 in delta state, Nigeria

Abstract

The study on the entrepreneurial insight of youth towards job creation arising from Covid-19 in Delta State, Nigeria had four specific objectives which identified the socioeconomic profile of youths with entrepreneurial insight, determined the extent of entrepreneurial insight of youth towards job creation, examined the impact of Covid-19 on job creation, and ascertained the challenges facing youth entrepreneurs towards job creation in Delta State. Data for the study was collected from a cross-section of seventy-five (75) respondents randomly selected to avoid bias. A combination of analytical tools include descriptive statistics, psychometric 4-points Likert scale, logistic regression model and inferential statistics such as analysis of variance and a nonparametric Wilcox sign test. The study found that 52.0% of the respondents were male and 53.0% of them were single, the average age was found as 26 years and more than half (50.7%) of the respondents attended secondary school. Interesting, 55.0% of the youths had access to credit. The respondents average monthly income was found as N59,587.77. The extent of the respondent’s entrepreneurship insight found that the youths believed that entrepreneurship contributes majorly to economic development by increasing economic productivity, serves as a solution to unemployment among other reasons. The study found that the Covid-19 outbreak has impacted negatively job creation which caused organizations or industries to sack some workers among other reasons. These impacts of Covid-19 can only be addressed through entrepreneurship development which to date has suffered from inadequate finance, poor access to market information among other issues. The socioeconomic profiles influencing the youth’s entrepreneurial insight are marital status (2.89***), household size (1.83*) and access to credit (1.86*). The, therefore, recommend that policymakers should take note of the challenges of entrepreneurship development identified in the study for onward decisions.