Abstract
The increasing rate of youth unemployment in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, remains among the challenges to social and economic stability. Accordingly, the Nigerian government implemented several interventions, including the Youth-in-Agribusiness (YIA) program to reduce youth unemployment. However, the effect of these programs on gainful employment creation is yet to be documented. Therefore, this study examined the impact of the YIA program on creating gainful employment among the youth. Multistage random sampling was used to obtain cross-sectional data from 668 youth in Southwestern Nigeria. Propensity score matching and endogenous switching probit techniques were used for the estimations. Results indicated that variables such as educational attainment, access to training, non-agricultural activity, membership in a youth organization, access to credit, productive resources, and youth location were significant and positively influenced youth decision to participate in the YIA program. Furthermore, participation in the YIA program has a significant positive impact on gainful employment among the youth. Therefore, the study recommends that strengthening social capital such as youth organization, credit scheme (financed by private and government), vocational training, and educational system is vital in enhancing participation in the YIA program and eventually gainful employment of youth.
Highlights
The second stage involves the selection of seven local government areas (LGAs) in each State purposively based on prior knowledge that both male and female youth in the LGAs were actively involved in the agribusiness intervention programs
The results that emanate from this study revealed that participation in an agricultural program is vital in creating gainful employment and subsequently improving the livelihood of individuals
The results show that the probability of not being gainfully employed for the youth that participated in the YIA program would have been 9.33% more had the youth not participated in the YIA program
Summary
There is a huge gap in the literature concerning the impact of the program on “gainful employment” (Gainful employment is defined in this study as a minimum sustainable amount of money a young person earns monthly) creation for the youth in Nigeria. Without filling this gap, it will be difficult to ascertain if programs of such nature could be adapted to solve the current high youth unemployment rate in Nigeria. We examine the impact/causality of youth participation in an agricultural program on creating gainful employment using robust econometrics estimation techniques such as the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and the Endogenous Switching Probit Models.
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