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Access to finance and rural youth entrepreneurship in Benin: Is there a gender gap?

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  • Melain Modeste Senou
  • Julius Manda

Abstract

Rural entrepreneurship is an important employment generation intervention for the fast‐growing young labour force in developing countries. Many bottlenecks including access to finance impede rural youths from performing in their new ventures. This paper examines the impact of access to finance on rural youths' entrepreneurship in Benin using data from the second wave of the School‐To‐Work Transition Survey, involving over 900 youths. The paper employs the endogenous switching regression technique, combined with propensity score matching, to investigate the drivers of rural youths' access to finance and its impact on entrepreneurship intention and performance. The results indicate that age, education, poverty status, experience, working in the agricultural sector and the existence of a bank branch are important determinants of rural youths' access to finance. The results also show that access to finance increases the probability of youth entrepreneurship by 15.2% on average. Moreover, the study shows a significant gender gap in rural entrepreneurship of 5.24% among youths with access to finance in Benin. These results suggest that policymakers should facilitate the access of youth, especially young women, to finance by encouraging formal financial institutions to reduce their credit eligibility conditions for those who do not have collateral.

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  • Melain Modeste Senou & Julius Manda, 2022. "Access to finance and rural youth entrepreneurship in Benin: Is there a gender gap?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 29-41, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:afrdev:v:34:y:2022:i:1:p:29-41
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8268.12623
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    2. Jiafeng Gu, 2024. "Family social capital and entrepreneurship in rural China: potential mediating mechanisms," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-30, August.
    3. Syeda Tayyaba Ijaz, 2024. "Impression management strategies, entrepreneurial reputation, and financial resource acquisition: an empirical study in entrepreneurship," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Abdoulganiour Almame Tinta & Idrissa Mohamed Ouédraogo & Ramatu Mahama Al‐Hassan, 2022. "The micro determinants of financial inclusion and financial resilience in Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(2), pages 293-306, June.
    5. Issa Dianda & Idrissa Ouedraogo & Hamidou Sawadogo, 2024. "Inclusive human development effect of financial inclusion in sub‐Saharan Africa: A gender perspective," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 1896-1917, April.
    6. Kadoukpè Gildas Magbondé & Djana Mignouna & Victor Manyong & Razack Adéoti & Ayélé Odile Sossou, 2023. "Impact of informal institutions on youth agribusiness participation in Southern Benin," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, December.
    7. Gregory Mvogo & Christèle Gladisse Awounang Djouaka, 2022. "Effet du mobile money sur la résilience des ménages exerçant des activités génératrices de revenus au Cameroun," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(4), pages 459-471, December.
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